What DO you do when you meditate Granny?

Abracadabra girl with Granny

The abracadabra girl is back in town, one year older but sharp as a pin!  "Granny, what do you DO when you meditate?"
I say this;  "You do your best to get still, you get your body still and your mind as still as it will be,  you might have your own magic sound to say in your mind or you might meditate by just keeping going back to being still".  
She says, "Why DO YOU Meditate?"
I say this; "You work hard at being still and you use your meditation as a way of changing any bad thoughts of feelings into good ones."
"Like what?" she says.

The swimming abracabra girl with aunts and uncles and cousins

I say this;  "Well suppose you feel busy or angry or jealous or cross or sad or even joyful , you can see you aren't them and if you need to you can change those feelings for better ones.  You are the winner in your own mind, you are
the person who is in charge of the feelings.  You can do this bit of good work when you meditate."

high five

She says, "Oh, that's a bit like Inside Out isn't it Granny?"
I say, "That's right abracadabra girl, your Granny is as up to date as the latest film, how I about that.
We high five!
You can see the trailer by clicking here or on the name of the film any of you Grannies out there who are wondering how to tell your own abracadabra children about meditation.

Two meditators find different ways to cope with henvasion! see film!

Henry the cockerel i/c hens

Grandpa with meditating dog

We bought some extra hens before the wedding ahead to bolster up the supply of eggs.  The 4 new hens spent the first few days cowering in the back of the hencoop while the others made it quite clear that they weren't welcome. Even Henry (see picture) who is the large and splendid cockerel in charge of the hens was fairly unpleasant to the new young hens.  However, 5 days on, things have changed and although he keeps his two sets of wives apart, he has shown favour to the new ones who consequently have joined the free range facilities offered here and become excessively bold.  So bold indeed that two of them came to inspect our house.  We tried two approaches to get them to leave; persuasion (Granny) and brute force (Grandpa).  You can see them online as they coax, giggle and then take action to evict the wild black hen.  At least they don't try to join us to meditate!!! although the dogs do

guarding against a henvasion!

granny's countdown to a wedding! Meditation plus make up!

hair do!

made up and ready to go

3 weeks to that wedding, lists to complete, shoes to match the outfit, shall we wear hats? heels how high? what flowers? who will collect her wedding dress? who will drive her to the Church? who will come? who won't?  I am taking all of this seriously!  And every rose is being cut back and encouraged to flower again by the wedding, every morning swim is accompanied by a little bit of light weeding and inspecting of the flowers for the bouquet.  My morning routine has had to change and after swimming in the pond below and inspecting the garden I have had to move beyond the meditating hut and rise to the challege of ?glamour? or at least respectability!  Today is the day to take on the challenge so I go to Selfridges where a most beautiful beautician takes me on!  Layers of make up glide onto my granny face cleverly masking the random wrinkle and line.  Eyes down for sparkling eyeshadow and glossy mascara inspires me to promise to make far greater efforts to cleanse and tone.

Early morning swimming pond

Djokovic the meditator!

a hero

You probably know this already but I didn't know that Djokovic, the wonderful tennis player, handsome chap with pin up good looks is a meditator.  This very day in an interview with The BBC, he said that he used meditation to keep himself fit.  I searched about the internet to find out more and discovered that in an article in 2013, Theo Merz revealed that Djokovic calls into a Buddhist monastery and temple when at Wimbledon to spend time because he says"it's a very calm and very beautiful environment".  That same year,  one of the monks at the temple, Phramaha Bhatsakorn Piyobhas suggested that meditation improves concentration and focus, which could in turn help someone play tennis, or any sport, better. 

Matthew Syed, in today's Times says that Wimbledon, though a place of civility and tradition is also a jungle.  where "the painful beauty of sport" is so clear. He describes watching "a succession of dreams being shattered, .....humiliation so graphic that the head and shoulders of one loser literally dropped as the second set reached it's" end.  

One pointed attention.

If Wimbledon Tennis is a jungle, it is because the highs and lows of success and failure are clearly on display  alongside strawberries and cream, pimms and champagne and the great and good watching coolly from the Royal Box.  If Djokovic finds that meditation is a key to his success, it must be because it is a key to the part of him which doesn't get stressed ever.  Meditation has been given to realise the beauty and peace of the soul in the midst of the maelstrom of life.  Grannies do it to realise that they are unchanged when looking at the legs and arms and face and hair, everything thatsuggests that you have become old.  In meditation, oldness and youngness disappear and this Granny is happy that Djokovic should be standing up for such a wonderfully intelligent choice of practice.  And good luck to him say I!