The Eye of the Storm

This morning in my meditation, an image came to my mind. I was doing my breathing and random thoughts kept flying by. Thoughts about my mother, my daughter, a phone call my husband received last night from an old friend offering his condolences about my father-in-law's death, and he then proceeded to talk only about himself for the next ten minutes.

I thought about friends who are quietly dealing with illness, and how Bill Clinton is going to start campaigning for Obama. I thought about all the fire flies I saw last night in the park and how much I love summer.

And I had this image of a tornado and sitting in the middle of it. I'm in the center, breathing, when suddenly I see a tree go by, or a car, or a house. And then it's quiet again, peaceful. I guess that's what my meditation feels like, so obviously I'm not doing it right.

Which is absolutely okay.

I just go back to the breath and then eventually another thought comes flying by: people who make me laugh. When I was a little kid I used to love reading Erma Bombeck, because she was funny. I love Chris Rock. I've even accepted the fact that though he's hard to take, Larry David occasionally makes me laugh.

Last night I saw an interview from 1996 with George Carlin on Charley Rose, a show he aired on the night Carlin died. Carlin wasn't at all funny in the interview, he was articulate and brilliant. He spoke about some of his early influences, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope movies (which my old friend Mel Frank wrote), and how much he loved words. I loved George Carlin and feel grateful that he gave me so many laughs and so much to think about.

I'm going to include his routine about the seven words you can't say on television because it's worth seeing again.