A few gentle tools are showing up to help me get back to daily meditations.  They feel like a fit to sit.  One is low tech – words on paper from the ages; the other is a new APP.

From an older, treasured book I have rediscovered teachings from Richard J Foster in Celebration of Discipline; in particular his chapter The Discipline of Meditation.  These two passages lift and encourage me to remember that I don’t have to do this alone or rely upon my own flimsy will-power.

“Anyone who imagines he can simply begin meditating without praying for the desire and the grace to do so, will soon give up.”  – Richard J Foster, Celebration of Discipline.

-and-

“To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing, winthin you.” – The Russian mystic Theophan the Recluse, as referenced by Richard J Foster, Celebration of Discipline.

And secondly, with the help of a much younger than me/more “app-savvy” freind, I have a new APP: INSIGHT TIMER.  It’s neat.  It offers a selection of timers and singing-bowl tones, plus a tracker of folks who are mediating all over the world at the same time as I.

Finding these two new sources of inspiration kind of reminds me that when I bring the smallest of seeds of desire, keep my eyes and heart open and my feet moving forward, God shows me the small signs of growth in me, and His encouraging ways, to take the next step.   And today I feel a little more fit to sit.

Note –  Rediscovering Richard Foster’s book is like coming home.  I see my original notes in the margins are from 1998 and 2007, and by no means do I want to leave any impressions that there are only “two” highlights.  Its a feast of a book.