It’s a beautiful fall morning here in New England so I decided to do my morning prayer/meditation on our balcony overlooking the farm.

As I sat in the sun and settled into my moment of communion with the angels, my thoughts temporarily drifted to the afternoon. “Should I go to the grocery store before I watch our son’s soccer game? (He just started playing varsity for his school this year!) Perhaps a walk in the woods would be better than the gym today…Will I have time to cook dinner after the game and before I go out with my friend Sue this evening?”

You know how thoughts go…from this to that back to this again. Random, circling and relentlessly reminding us of our responsibilities and what our egos believe are priorties – some of which are and many of which aren’t.

Clicking quickly into awareness that my mind was controlling my prayer with senseless garble, I thought, “So what’s the difference between sitting in the sun on a beautiful day and meditation?” With this final query of the mind, I brought myself back to my meditative space and continued my communion with the angels.

Many of my students and clients struggle to be in silence and stillness.

I was reading an article about Michelle Pfeiffer at the gym the other day and she said she doesn’t meditate, because she’s too busy thinking about what else she could be doing.

Does this feel familiar to you?

I understand! We all have such busy lives and a multitude of stresses that it can be hard to “just sit”. As you can see, it’s still a conscious effort for me and I do frequently need to reel in my thoughts as I did this morning.

That’s why they call meditation a discipline. It does take effort, focus and concentration. Without meditation, however – even for 5 minutes a day – it is much harder to experience an ever-deepening relationship with the angels.

Even a short period of stillness time daily does wonders. I’ve seen it in students time and time again. They make statements such as, “I just took a few minutes in my car before going into work and it’s made such a difference!”

Sitting in the sun is a beautiful experience of enjoying the glory of nature.

Meditation is about the intention of communing with the higher self, the angels and staying open to receive all possibility. The stillness that comes from meditation is like the void from which all creation flows.

Be still, my love!

Blessings, Rev. Nina