The difference is only one letter but...

When entering the address of this blog in my toolbar yesterday, I mistakenly struck the wrong key: 'no such address'. I cocked my head, then looked closer. Medications in the night watch is what I had entered! Funny - what a cool twist, I thought. Both ends of a spectrum, perhaps! Both are ways of living through life's challenges, means that help us cope. Which is our default setting, meditation or medication?

Where do we turn first when difficulties arise that tap our resources and cause us to turn somewhere else for help? What practices do we have in place daily for reviving our lagging selves - mind, body and spirit? How do we live day to day so that when hard times intersect our lives with each new blow, we have a pattern - a rhythm of sorts - in place for walking through it?

There is a place for the stuff the pharmacies stock, but there is so much more we can do as well to be healthy and vibrant by tending our spirits. Prayer and meditation are not empty 'sweet' past times for those who have time on their hands; rather, they can be the lifeblood of strong, courageous, faithful living. Deepening our understanding through practicing prayer - not by waiting until we know enough to do it well - is the only way I know to start and to stay in that place where prayerfully following Christ is not just a habit we do, but becomes part of who we are.