Why I Meditate

I started to meditate in my early 30's I'm in my 60's now.

As a kid, Mom was firmly religious and Dad was firmly secular. They were both wonderful people: honest, brave, creative, full of love and laughter, and I loved them both. But I felt I had to choose.

Since Dad's view seemed to be more accepting of people as they are and provide more opportunity for a larger community, and Mom's side seemed more like a club you had to say the right words to join, I swung over to Dad's side.

By the time I reached 30, life had already hit me with some blows that had knocked me to my knees and the secular-only approach wasn't working. My main goal in life since I'd been a little kid was to be happy. So I turned to meditation to see if I could attain a happy mental state that wouldn't impair my ability to function, (in other words, without drugs.)

It took practice, but it was the right thing for me to do. I'd been so busy listening to the loud voices: phones, tv, news, opinions of others, that I was missing the subtler voices.

For me it also cracked open an intuition I was taught to ignore as a kid who shared a twin-thing. It led me to Buddhist practice and eventually back to the church I left as a disgruntled teen. In fairness it's because the local parish priest is amazing. I'm still a practicing Buddhist, but go to church every Sunday. I find no conflict at all between the two.

Stilling the chatter is not for the faint of heart, it takes courage to step into the unknown. Timing is everything. I had to move into it when the time was right.

How has it changed my life?

• Well life is still hard at times, some mornings I do not want to get out of bed. It is happy and sad, fun and awful. But I am easier with life.
• Under all that grand mess is something wonderful that I have met now and again and want to learn more about.
• As splendid as the mind is, I treat it more as an assistant, than my boss.
• Stilling the chatter has taught me that I am not supposed to get life right. What a revelation !
• It's taught me that it isn't the big ticket things that make me happy but the 100 little joys in a day that when added up make for a happy day. But I do have to pay attention to them or they fly right by.

It also taught me that there is a way to bridge the opposing views of my parents. Meditation taught me that there is room to love us all, and love well.

About Me (in the manner of Amélie)

I dislike:

• Music that stops three notes before the end.
• Horror films. “Shaun of the Dead” doesn’t count.
• Chartreuse, the colour.
• Auto seats designed for people with no backsides.
• Scented air fresheners.
• Road signs turned the wrong way.
• Any green dessert. My sister won’t eat them either. We don’t know why. She and I are twins you know. Fraternal. We both have doppelgängers somewhere. Not each other. We look like sisters, not twins. Hers is in Toronto, last spotted near the University of Toronto campus. I have at least two. One in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the other seems to be everywhere. Strangers come up to me on the street and talk to me as though I know them. This happens more often than you’d think.

I like:

• The scent of vanilla. As a kid I kept an empty vanilla extract bottle on my dresser.
• Rocks. Rolling them especially. In the garden the flowers are nice, but building the rock walls, well that’s satisfying. A stone story: My husband was out with a fisherman buddy to check the weirs at The Wolves, some islands off the New Brunswick shore, 30 or 35 years ago. He came back far too late but he brought me back a stone from The Wolves as a peace offering. The perfect size to fit my hand, the perfect weight, the perfect silky texture. I still have it around here somewhere.
• The absurd. That may be why I have so many Douglas Adams books on my bookshelves.
• The sound of a pipe organ at full crank in a place where the acoustics are half-decent. It’s thrilling to feel the different tones through the floor, through my skin to my bones, filling the room right up to the rafters. The deep, composite sound seems to support the very building. Digital is fine, but even with the best speakers, it doesn’t come close to the real thing.
• On the same note (pun intended) interesting chord progressions. When the movie “A Beautiful Mind” came out, my sister told me to buy the soundtrack. She knew I’d like the chord progressions. I was a teen when the Beatles, the Stones and the Beach Boys were coming up with new stuff all the time. But I was raised to love the classics too, and swing, and silly old tunes from the early 1900’s. Mom taught us to read music before we learned our letters.
• Being pressed back into my seat as a plane ascends. After a steep and fast ascent to altitude on one trip, my sister turned to me and said, “That was worth the price of the ticket all by itself.”
• Similarly, the sensation of someone writing on my back for lack of a flat surface.
• Books. Reading. As a kid I promised myself that one day I’d have a house full of books and I’m happy to say I do. Yeah. Paper. You can’t take an iPad to the tub. Well, I can’t anyhow; my hardcover copy of The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart is a lot thicker than it used to be. Some of my books were my Dad’s. All have been read and many have been re-read.

Well that’s me.

About Janet

Janet Dane is a psychic, healer, writer and teacher, best known as the creator of her website, jandane.com which centres on mysticism, personal growth and happiness that has been viewed by millions and has been translated into several languages.

Janet’s fresh and engaging take on personal growth and the challenges of everyday day life has made her a trusted voice in the field of spirituality. Her practical and encouraging readings and healings have helped thousands of people to feel better.

Janet was born in Toronto Canada and grew up in a nearby village, where she could appreciate both the city lights and the forests and farmland of the country. Janet was intuitive and empathic as a child, curious by nature and deeply interested in solving problems. At the age of twelve, Janet promised herself she’d find out how to have a happy life. This might tell you something about Janet and her relationship to spirit, to happiness and to life.

Janet’s writing has appeared and her work featured in local and international periodicals and she has been interviewed for radio and television. It’s fast and painless to book a reading, party, healing or consultation with Janet.

40 Years Ago

Is it really 40 years?

We took this pic during May 1976, when after a late winter storm there were still a few patches of snow. We bought the cottage on June 10, 1976.

From the house we could see the spring fed ponds, where we could fish and swim.

We could see about 1 km south, down Centre Rd. I would watch for the headlights of the boys coming home when the weather was bad.

We could see Violet Hill beyond the Boyne River valley about 15 km south-east.

And we could see all the way across to highway 400 to the east, about 40 km away.

Since then, houses have sprung up around us, small trees have become tall, and saplings I planted have grown up. What we lost in view, we gained in privacy.
That’s my office window you can see there in the above picture. First the office was down in the basement, then it moved to the back bedroom, then it moved back to the basement, and now it’s upstairs again. I hung a birdhouse from the TV tower right outside the window and have seen wren families settle in and raise their young in it as we have here.

It was a cottage in 1976, and needed work to make it liveable through the first winter. It still feels like a cottage and still needs work. That’s Shelly. She’s been gone since 1988 and I still sometimes dream of her.

I’ve put in gardens and moved them when our needs changed. My favourite part was setting the rocks in place. I love rolling rocks.

Three years after we moved in, we got married in the little church up the road.

Eight years after we moved in we welcomed our daughter, and raised her in this house.

Twenty-nine years after we moved in, we saw our daughter off to her own wedding. After the wedding she kicked off her heels and said hello to her in-law’s dog Kelsey.

This little cottage has held us safely for 40 years. I guess I’m feeling nostalgic.