Day 4 of 365Envisage

For someone who doesn’t like to have her picture taken, there are a whole lotta days ahead where my plan is to do just that.

Today’s picture is courtesy of the timer on my camera. I am no techno whiz and timers are pretty basic stuff, but I was thrilled. Now I won’t be quite so limited to arm’s reach or unsuspecting strangers.

I try to practice Centering Prayer once each day – just for ten minutes. Some people do their Centering Prayer shortly after arising in the morning. I wait a while. I wait until there is some clutter in my head that I want to get rid of. :)

Ideally, one’s head is totally emptied during prayer, but in reality we can never empty our heads of all thoughts. It’s impossible. A mantra of one’s choosing helps rein in wandering thoughts.

Today I was struck by the utter and nearly complete silence of my life.

1. I live alone - Absolutely alone: no dog, cat, gerbil, parakeet, or goldfish.
2. I live in the middle of the woods surrounded by my five acres and the neighbors’ adjacent acres.
3. My home is only 7 years old so it’s pretty much hermetically sealed. At night, I do sleep with a widow open when weather permits – I like to hear the sounds of my woods or the rain or the wind.
4. Zero traffic sounds. Not even air traffic.
5. I turn off the ringers to my two phones and the sound to my computer so I can’t hear the *ping* of an incoming email.
6. The singular sound I heard during prayer today was from my kitchen. It was the occasional creak of the heat against the glass carafe of my coffee maker.


A lot of people couldn’t live with the solitude I embrace. I can’t imagine living any other way. xoxo


Where I sit for Centering Prayer