{"id":424,"date":"2015-09-19T17:01:33","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T21:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=424"},"modified":"2015-09-19T17:05:01","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T21:05:01","slug":"an-oldsters-om","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=424","title":{"rendered":"An Oldster’s Om"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"meditate\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing I want to know is what you did on your date!\u00a0 Just shut up and leave me alone.\u00a0 You guys are disgusting!\u201d<\/p>\n

The slamming of my daughter\u2019s bedroom door was the punctuation to that tirade.\u00a0 Teens.\u00a0 You can\u2019t live with them\u2026<\/p>\n

It had started out as just another observation over the dinner table. We had finally found a night when Jenny, our daughter, and Jessie and I were all available at last for a real traditional dinner.\u00a0 Jess went all out.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a single microwaved item on the table. \u00a0There was the \u201cHow did your day go?\u201d thread that we kept alive for ten minutes.\u00a0 There was the \u201cHow was school?\u201d thread that lingered for thirty seconds.\u00a0 And then there was the \u201cYour mother and I were thinking\u2026\u201d thread that stopped all forward motion for quite a while.<\/p>\n

What we were thinking about was a weekend retreat held by a local Buddhist monastery that catered to the locals on the odd occasion.\u00a0 A Zen Relationship workshop was coming up, and Jessie had asked me if I was up to putting a bit of spirit back into our relationship.\u00a0 The fact that she asked with a slight leer in her voice and twinkle in her eye was all the prompting I needed.\u00a0 She signed us up that night.<\/p>\n

Did you know that Buddhists have websites?\u00a0 I always thought they were on the far side of the Amish and Mennonites and Luddites and all of those.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 MacBook Pro all the way.\u00a0 I began to think of carrying a begging bowl around with me if those are the results.\u00a0 It was a real glitzy site.\u00a0 High production values. The part I wasn\u2019t too thrilled with was the 4 am rising time for meditation on Saturday and Sunday mornings.\u00a0 Then breakfast at 7.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 It was one weekend.\u00a0 I would survive.\u00a0 And I was looking forward to the benefits.\u00a0 I had a mental poster of that leer up on my psychic wall all weekend. I would have to look up the correct spelling and usage for \u201cRavish\u201d when we get back.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s supposed to be \u201cRavage.\u00a0 That\u2019s different.<\/p>\n

We snuggled and played a bit Friday night after arriving at the retreat.\u00a0 There was one sharp \u201cSSHHHHHH!\u201d from outside our room at about midnight, but we giggled it away and the band played on.<\/p>\n

4 am. Do you know it\u2019s still dark at 4 am?\u00a0 I had slept for three and a half hours, and I looked like I had caught my head in a grackle\u2019s nest.\u00a0 My mouth tasted like a litter box, and one eye was glued shut.\u00a0 Meditation was going to be a piece of cake.<\/p>\n

We sat.\u00a0 Cross-legged.\u00a0 Jess kept me awake with the occasional poke until one of the monks came over and separated us.\u00a0 After five minutes of snoring, he came back with Jessie in tow and sat her back down.\u00a0 I believe the admonition was \u201cSilent meditation.\u00a0 Please.\u201d\u00a0 We survived.<\/p>\n

Breakfast was wonderful.\u00a0 Yummy food, eaten silently and just staring at my sweetie.\u00a0 The intentionality of being wholly alone with Jessie was enough to deepen my feelings of love, respect, and desire.\u00a0 By the end of breakfast and washing up, I was ready for a little nap and rolling around.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

We walked.\u00a0 Around and around, with everyone else, for hours.\u00a0 We stopped for food, and walked some more.\u00a0 We stopped for food again, and more walking.\u00a0 When it got dark, we sat and meditated, eyes open, eyes shut, but always together.\u00a0 Then we slept.\u00a0 No rolling around.<\/p>\n

4 am.\u00a0 It was getting better.\u00a0 Another day of meditating and walking with my love, and then a silent ride home with loving kindness in my heart.\u00a0 We stopped on the way for a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n

Jenny was out when we got home, so we caught up on our nap time.\u00a0 The rolling around was silent, and open-eyed.\u00a0 We smiled a lot.<\/p>\n

Just before dinner, Jenny straggled in.\u00a0 We must have had that flush that you get after a weekend of deep meditation.\u00a0 Like the rosy glow of good health, or a profound experience.\u00a0 Or just deep contentment.\u00a0 We just wanted to share our awareness and happiness with our daughter.\u00a0 Our enthusiasm was cut short by her admonition.\u00a0 \u201cGod, you guys, the last thing I want to know is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cThe last thing I want to know is what you did on your date!\u00a0 Just shut up and leave me alone.\u00a0 You guys are disgusting!\u201d The slamming of my daughter\u2019s bedroom door was the punctuation to that tirade.\u00a0 Teens.\u00a0 You can\u2019t live with them\u2026 It had started out as just another observation over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-promptedwriting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}