500 Days of Meditation … Am I There Yet?

500 uninterrupted days of meditation in a row. Am I there yet? I don’t know. No. Turns out there is nowhere to go, except be. A message that meditation delivers and redelivers over a long haul. A note that is particularly poignant in this current moment, when we want nothing more than to get back to normal and not be in this moment. Meditation asks us to notice. To notice how and what we label — this is a crisis, that’s normal, I don’t like this, I like that.

Since meditation is nothing but a practice of noticing; here’s what I’ve noticed:

1. When will I remember? I’m now almost able to remember to sit without a prompt. I still try to leave a physical reminder for myself. On weekdays, it’s my headphones on my office chair, so I can’t sit down without noticing that I haven’t done my meditation yet. On weekends, when I try not to sit at my desk, even if I have work, I put my iPad (aka the book on my Kindle app that I’m likely to want to relax with on the couch) under my headphones. Most days, I’ve already remembered before the headphones give me a nudge, but not every day. Not yet. I’ve noticed in the last ten days that the habit is finally starting to get really sticky, which, paradoxically, makes me worry I’ll forget. I wonder when (if ever) meditation will get to be like brushing my teeth. I’d never forget to brush. Or working out. My body gets…