Changes

When I get up in the morning for my period of prayer and meditation there are several tasks that I perform like preparing and fiddling with a fire in the wood-stove,  reading e-mails or preparing and soaking in the hot-tub.  In the past, I have looked on these activities as forms of  “Splitting wood and carrying water” that actually facilitated, in a zen way, my focusing on prayer and meditation, and they very definitely helped.  I now realize that those activities, if continued, are also a distraction from my main purpose.  They give me something to do, rather than simply getting to the prayer and meditation.  Originally, they facilitated my process, now it is time to let them go and move on, a change to be aware of.