It is possible that you’re not meant to get the giggles during meditation. I mean, I’ve searched stock photos on multiple occasions under “meditation” and everyone always looks skinny, serene, blissed out, and earnest. No one is giggling, as I did the other night, when the wonderful Susan Reifer led us through a metta (lovingkindness) practice.

(Sign up for her free monthly online meditation classes, Whistler Meditates, through the Whistler Public Library. SO helpful, seriously. So supportive. Such a simple and vital practice…She also offers one-on-one or group teaching.)

What gave me the giggles was the instruction to imagine a difficult person in my life, and then work my way through the blessings, that were to the effect of “may you have peace, may you be well.”

I think it’s because there have been many other names I have called “difficult people” in my life, most of which I’d prefer my kid not to overhear (and definitely not to use) – terms of abuse-hurling endearments… (and does it ever feel as though these names rise to the forefront so quickly these days when we feel thwarted, frustrated, impacted…) and naming that person/that multitude of persons with the honorific “O Difficult Person” instead of the fifteen thousand curse words weirdly delighted me.

Also, weirdly delightful, was entering “meditation” just now, once again into unsplash, the stock photography site that often provides lovely imagery for this website… and, of course, there is a photo of a woman meditating and laughing at the same time. I wonder what weird mental delight made her laugh.

Oh laughing meditation model, may you be well and at peace, even though you just made me contradict myself.