Freya is beginning to make some progress with meditation, and we are both optimistic. Her friend Jim, who is the husband of a coworker, gave her a run-down of the practice, as well as pointing out some articles which she could read to help her learn more. I found those more interesting than Freya did. What really has helped her was the app that Jim recommended, which gives her deep-breathing exercises, nature sounds to help her sleep, and guided her through two different forms of the meditation.
“I like the loving-kindness best,” she told me last night. “When I’m doing the mindful meditation the chimes are way too distracting. Every time I hear one I’m like, oh, now there’s only six minutes left until I’m done.”
Isn’t that the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do?
“Right?” She lay back against her pillows and rested her laptop on her stomach, angling the screen down so she could still see it. “But the loving kindness I can probably start doing unguided soon. Do you think it would be okay if I didn’t use the mantra exactly?”
What changes were you thinking of making?
“I don’t know, it’s just wordy. I think it would be easier if I broke it down to the essentials: happiness, wellness, peace.”
“Wellness” rather than “health”?
“Yeah, it just feels better.”
I laughed to myself, and Freya caught the emotion—a sign, maybe, that the meditation is working.
“What’s funny?”
Brid and I are always disagreeing about whether happiness or wellness is more important. It’s amusing to me that your mantra should include both of them.
“I guess that means they have to work together, then,” Freya said with a smile. She yawned and turned over onto her stomach, bracing the laptop against the headboard. “Brid is your healer friend, right? So she’s into the wellness.”
While happiness has always been what I find most important.
Freya tapped the spacebar thoughtfully. “Is that still the case, though, now that you’re not a Cupid anymore?”
The question surprised me, but the answer soon came to me, as if it has been waiting inside me without my knowing it.
Perhaps I should be most concerned for safety and security as a Guardian, but I have not changed all that much. The reason I left the Cupids was to ensure your happiness, and indeed, my own. I protect you so that you may be happy.
Freya nodded, her smile very soft. Then she yawned again and closed the screen. “Then I’ll make peace my priority,” she said, more to herself than to me. “And between the three of us we’ll make it all happen.”
I can only hope that we can. True peace is all that any of us can ask.