A fellow cafe patron observed, only moments ago, “That could drown a lot of flies!” referring to the 12-ounce-double-latte-with-a-packet-of sugar-in-the-raw just set down before me. My response: “That was way too gross before 9am on a Saturday morning!” As if it weren’t too gross for 9:17 am on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning? And what am I doing at a cafe before 9am on a Saturday morning, eyes still puffy with sleep?

Well, I ask you this: What happens when you wake up? Do you float in half-awake dreamy space? I wish! In one millisecond I’m in an almost aware dream state and then Ding!, a millisecond later, I’m shot straight to an awareness of sounds, body temperature, and skin sensation with no hope of falling back asleep. Wednesday or Saturday.

The worse part is that this Ding! wakes up the mental chatterer, “Oh boy! it’s a new day! let’s go!” No. let me sleep some more. “Hey! you know all those things we said yesterday we were going to do tomorrow? It’s tomorrow! We can start!” Shut up. let me enjoy this comfy bed. “So I think I have an idea about that one problem, we could try blah blah blah! Ya know, we really compromised in that situation with John yesterday. What could we have done? Well…” Makes me want to cry sometimes, I tell ya.

That chatterer is like a wiggly little puppy who wants to play play play but it’s decidedly not cute. The strategy I usually take to shut it up: I just get up. The activities that follow seem to side-track it enough to quiet down a bit. Not a great strategy, admittedly. Sets a bad precedence. I mean, isn’t this how we get into do-do-do mode, i.e. just doing in order to engage or appease the mind?

What about relaxation? (very important) What about intuitive planning and writing time? (super important) What about quietly listening to the silence of the universe? (super super important) What about creating an internal environment conducive for listening to intuition? (super duper important)

Plus, being wide awake AND present in the awareness of body, mind, spirit, and the external world (without mind chatter) is a really yummy experience. Lately I’ve been experiencing this once a week. On Fridays. From 8:30am - 10am to be specific. (That’d be during yoga class.) And without fail, at some point during this time period for the last four Fridays my intuitive voice has chimed in, “How about that meditation class you’ve heard about from a couple of different people?”

For those who are into listening to subtle, or not so subtle clues, to guide them, let’s do a quick count of intentional deafness indicated in the paragraphs above:

1. 2 friends telling me about their good experience with the same meditation class led by a certain teacher
2. 4 times the intuitive voice has chimed in to check out that class
3. countless times waking up to out-of-control mind chatter
4. too many times racing through a day “doing” without allowing time to “check-in”

= Duh! That’s like standing under a 30 foot wave and saying, “What tsunami?”

Ok, ok! I’ll check it out! I’m also interested in hearing what you, reader, do to work with your mental chatterer…

Silence is the true friend that never betrays.
~ Confucius