I try to practice Centering Prayer once each day - just for ten minutes. Some people do their Centering Prayer shortly after waking in the morning. I wait a while. I wait until there's 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.



Where I sit for Centering Prayer