Moving Reflection

I am sitting in my small den off the kitchen listening to the birds on a sunny morning, two days before we move. Suddenly, I am overcome with missing this home, this room, this place.

My days have been spent packing and planning, coordinating and making sure the process will go as smoothly as possible. It took a long time to sell our house, and it is time to go. Yet, as I sit in the stillness, with the sun streaming in familiar ribbons across the room, I stop to feel the solemnity of the moment. Almost 14 years, the house my girls remember most as their home, a chapter in our lives.

In this room, there is a beautiful fireplace with two different moldings. It reminds me why my husband and I have always liked old homes. However, we are now moving into a newly built house, albeit a "colonial" with high ceilings, wide moldings and other attractive features.

I will also miss the familiarity of the house; it is known and comfortable like a favorite pair of shoes. The neighborhood has beautiful old trees and rock outcroppings, lots of streets of various grades which are perfect for walking. Within a couple of blocks, three good friends of mine are just a spontaneous phone call away. I know I'll continue to see them, but it will not be like it is now.

Except for our three years in London, we have lived in the same general area for 28 years. Whatever I need, I know where to go. I now understand why people return to their old neighborhoods and stores for shoe repairs or fresh fish; these are vendors we've been doing business with for years and it's familiar, like a family that has relied on each other for a long time.

In many respects I am lucky to be moving only eight minutes away, so that I can come back if I choose to do so. However, I have a feeling that once we're in the new house, it will be fun to explore and find new haunts: restaurants, services, walking routes and ways to get from here to there.

So I allow myself the momentary melancholy and know that the missing is what makes the parting so much sweeter and more poignant. It reminds me of what and whom is most important to me, and I feel blessed to have so much.

Morphing Meditation

I don't know about you, but establishing a regular meditation practice is much harder than I thought it would be.

My first exposure to meditation was when I was in college. I worked part-time for a small company where one of the women did TM (transcendental meditation) daily. She told me how important it was for her sanity (she had two kids and a busy life). It sounded interesting, but a little weird.

Fast forward 20 years. As I became more interested in health and healing, I learned to meditate in workshops and yoga classes. I did it sporadically, and began to get more comfortable with it. During a 3-week trip to India in 2005, I meditated more. And I started to use meditation to relax when descending in airplanes (it helps with the nauseous feeling I sometimes get). The effect is always calming and centering.

A couple of years ago, after my Reiki Master class ended, several of us sat around talking. Here was a group of women interested in the use of healing energy who were spiritual and open to exploring the unseen. We decided to start a monthly meditation group, rotating homes each month, where the host would be responsible for the type of meditation (guided, walking, silent, etc.).

Today our group has expanded not only in number but also in the diversity of our activities. We continue to meet monthly for meditation, and several times a year we have speakers on a variety of topics. These have included sound healing, aromatherapy and the use of crystals. Just a few months ago, we started a walking group in the parks of Westchester (the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, Rockefeller Preserve), which, due to the beautiful surroundings, is meditative as well.

Although my daily (let's say at least 5 days a week) meditation practice did not start until after the silent retreat in September, I can honestly say that those group meditations really helped me to "practice" the practice. My meditations are typically 10-25 minutes, and since doing them, my days begin in a calmer and more thoughtful way.