In Response To: Ohm

Today, my wife asked me if I wanted to participate in a challenge.

“It’s day four,” she said, “And I have missed the first three days.” I laugh at her codependency and her tardiness.

This could not be more her. Even if she’s getting on the bandwagon late, I’m curious. Chuckling to myself, I couldn’t help but inquire, “What, exactly, is this challenge?”

“Meditation.” She then proceeds to let out a meditative ohm. Girl can breathe.

“It’s the gratitude challenge,” she says, “And Oprah and Deepak are leading it.”

“Oprah and Chopra?” I quip. That woman can do anything: her book club gets people to read, her favorite things become our favorite things, and now she’s telling us how to breathe.

It’s like her, my wife, to start something after it’s already begun. I have to hand it to her though, she has the heart of a champion. Even if she starts the race late, she will sprint to the finish, finding a way to make it to the end.

“Isn’t it the point to start at day one?” I prod, and I’m doing so, hint at my lack of commitment.

“I didn’t have time!” she explains, bemoaning my probing.again, I’m laughing.

“But the point of meditation is to make time.” At least that’s how I think of it.

Smiling about this the whole time, we go back-and-forth, pondering the finite principles of meditation that neither one of us can seem to commit to.

That’s when she explains how she carved out time to meditate in between our busy schedules. “I just do it in the car,” she says. The visual is priceless.

“In the car?” I question in complete disbelief. “That’s not safe. You’re supposed to focus on nothing else.”

And that’s when I realize that this is what our lives have come to: meditating at red lights and stop signs because we cannot find the time to do so otherwise. In between busy schedules, jockeying for position as parents of our toddler, and attempting to live and manage life, the only time we get to breathe is when traffic allows us to do so.

It may be day five of the challenge by the time we actually begin, but it is never too late to breathe.