Minding the Gap

“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”

Sometimes this is attributed to Mozart, but who knows?

Today I'm addressing some anxiety as I draw a parallel between this axiom and the idea that meditation is the space between two thoughts, and I aim to widen that gap.

What is

I recently had a discussion within the world of Education to parse out the difference between evaluation and assessments. We concluded that evaluations include judgements/rubrics/cross-comparisons and were more formal in nature. In an assessment you see "what is" and take it from there, they can be frequent and low-key. Both provide great information.

This crosses over to something I'm working on (<---case and point) in meditation. Okay re-phrase, this is something I would like to transfer into my practice. I've been hoping to set a better intention for myself, mantra, or whatever that I can come back to for a couple of weeks. What I've realized is I've been searching for a goal rather than intention (thank you, internet).  Just like an assessment, an intention does not have a required result. Goals, like evaluations, may imply that something needs fixing, or there is something I should be or do.

So maybe what I will spend time asking myself is:

Do I have what I need?

My first instinct, funny enough is to say "no!" but perhaps if I look deeper I might see that some of these things are petty in the long term. It's a similar panic to what I experienced yesterday in Hancock's fabrics. I drove up and saw enormous yellow and red signs reading "Going out of business!" Not just this one, but all of them! So then I was trying to align my "needs" on the pre-scribbled list in my hand with my "future needs" plus the reality of my bank account.

Wants, needs, expectations...rinse, repeat!

Happiness in 60 Seconds

Nones and Nuns

I recently passed my 1 year anniversary of meditation. For the sake of curiosity, I have stats from my app, not that they really matter.

Average Duration-15 minutes
Number of sessions-229
Total time Meditating-55 hours

That means I practiced 62% of the year, over half! This is pretty neat, I am proud I committed to something new.

A switch in lifestyle afforded me time to get to know myself better as well. I am more aware of when I am upset (for better or worse). This makes it more possible for me to confront my feelings instead of sweeping things under the rug. I am also more aware of when I am happy and healthy and take extra measures to appreciate those moments.

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is." -Kurt Vonnegut

On Being with Krista Tippett recently featured Nathan Schneider re: The Wisdom of Millennials. This podcast introduced me to the "Nones" (I hope this is an amazing and intentional "Nun" pun). It's a reference to the generation(s) of people who identify as spiritual or religious but are not affiliated with anything in particular.

I like learning about how other people cultivate inner strength and make a community.

This year I made my own meditation pillow-success in many realms! I often wonder if prayer and meditation serve the same purpose for people. I wonder if it is a matter of what priorities or intentions people set-similar to the difference between music educators and music therapists-similar practice with different goals.

In both, I think you invite the outside world to come in, to get outside of your mind and work on creating space for all thoughts to pass-whether they are positive/negative/other. I discontinued membership to a meditation app, because I feel ready to study and gather wisdom from other sources around me.