If you fall, what are you going to hang on to?

When you are a Granny, you are almost certainly the same sort of age as other Grandparents and many of them have been friends for years; a few childhood friends, some school friends, teenage friends, friends whose weddings you went to and friends who you met at the school gate or in the playground when you were learning how to be a parent!   Now only a few of them have a parent left, I have two friends with parents who are around and they are the survivors aiming for the hundredth birthday royal telegram.  

All of these friends have had aspirations to happiness, remember the smiling faces at weddings, at christenings, at school sports days and at graduations.  And then remember seeing all these things through your granny eyes, it's a different way of looking.  The thing is to have no regrets and that is a job in itself but it is an even bigger job when you get bowled the real hard ones, the tragedies that come out of the blue and whop you under the chin or right in the stomach.  I would like to say that meditation prepares you for these shocks, it doesn't make you numb but it helps you to see things in perspective and to find letting go of the deep attachments to life a little easier.  

Sri Shantananda Saraswati
Shankaracarya of Northern India
until his death 

There are some people who are called to the inner life early and they have a quality about them which is comforting.  I believe that they are the gatekeepers, they are there to welcome you in to the place they have made for you.  Get to know them, find about their practice so that you can come to it when you need it.   There are more of them around than you may think!  And of course if you come to St Martin-in-the-Fields on November 26th in the day or to St James' Piccadilly in the evening you will meet some very good examples of just this and you get to try out meditation and stillness yourself in a beautiful place.  To find out more go to www.justthisday.org or click on this link to read the newsletter.  Here is a picture of someone who knew all about this and sent loving messages to us in the West to say that meditation was the key ingredient to both spiritual and secular life.