Dipping into meditation

Increasingly, I have been meditating. Meditation seemed daunting before. I never knew if I was doing it right. I still don't know if I am doing it "right" but that is no matter because it has been serving as a sort of protector. This protector is still honing its skills though...before I could see it chasing after me when I started internally and externally deviating, but it has become more swift and pretty soon after I "slip" it catches me and reminds me to keep in check. Even more recently it has been able to shield me more and more from myself and amazingly serve as a preventer and guilt reducer.

After meditating I feel at times what I imagine an elderly person is like...many seem more at peace with the journey, an ability to know what fights to pick in the wide scheme of things. Actually, studies have shown that happiness increases later in life. There are a number of possible factors that researchers have tried to attribute to this, one is that those who express increased happiness show a certain degree of control  yet an acceptance of what cannot be altered. That IS meditation to me at the early stage of my practice. Control and acceptance. In the form of sitting or carrying a chant in my head, I meditate on the interconnectiveness with my surroundings including the individuals around me. I meditate on the perspective this moment will have in the grand story of my life. Just being happy with what is at the moment. Really, there is not a lot that is worth confrontation.

As I have mentioned, I have not perfected this skill but the more I practice it the more I do see its effect. Life is a story and it is so easy to want to make it an exciting one but that means a plot line with a lot of unnecessary ups and downs and twists and turns... that is what sells but is it at the expense of self integrity? Life naturally will give us the hills to climb so digging holes or climbing a mountain when there is already a tunnel to go through and doing it just for the sake of entertainment seems very tiring.