Meditation is not just for Grannies! but it helps them too

odd socks

lego all over the place

Meditation is not just for Grannies.  But of course Grannies have more time or so you might think.  I started meditating when I had a whole heap of children, scattered lego not in sets, socks not in pairs, rugby matches to watch and kit to wash, then with the girls, my little pony, hair clips and Flossie Teacake books to endure.  The thing is/was that I thought this was going to go on forever even though the evidence of feet growing out of first baby gros, then trainers, trousers and shirts seemed to indicate that the bodies of my babies were their own self growing things and when they developed their own good and bad habits, that their minds and desires were also their own.  Of course, I thought that the foreverness would endure and they would always be coming home to us and over the intervening years Grandpa and I have made a million pots of marmalade, filled our larders and deep freezes, made the beds up, got the logs in and waited for "the family" to arrive.  Of course they do, but now they have their own lives, their own wives and their own families, their own houses and their own socks to put in pairs and we are learning to shop with a basket over our arms not with a socking great trolley.

A good demonstration of We and Tea!

There are of course advantages!  We can sit in bed with a cup of tea and read, sometimes to ourselves and sometimes to each other.  We are much more sleepy now we are older, we go to bed earlier and sleep like logs.

We were surprised about the change from the central parenting, working identities we had enjoyed for so long but that change surprised us into realising the fragility and impermanence of those identitities.  So, the meditation we had practised over the years which had acted as a calming influence in the search for socks has become essential to the next transition.  And it works.  Not always of course, sometimes meditation is a struggle to sit and dodge the thoughts which try to bludger their way through the quidditch park of the mind.  Sometimes the golden snitch is elusive but oh when you get it, a great peace and confidence seeps through your whole mind and body and the real Self you are comes and softens the edges of inner conflict, the pains and pleasures of life and the next transition doesn't seem to be a big deal.  It also gives understanding of where other people are in their own conflicts and perhaps Grandpa and I and others like us who believe in the something otherness of existence and who aim for the golden snitch make a difference.  If you want to make a difference too, why not follow the signs in this newsletter for Just this Day and join us by coming to London or by switching on your computer, going to www.justthisday.org at 10..0 am GMT and following Brahma Kumari Isabelle Gauthier as she leads us into a meditation.  Then stay on line and listen to Valery Rees introduce Dr David Horan, a meditating translator of the dialogues of Plato who with Mrs Laura Hyde, a director of Education for St James Schools, London, education consultant and former Headmistress will show how the silence and stillness behind words can transform our words and actions.  It will be well worthwhile hearing them.

Life might improve for these two if they read to each other and meditated!