Mental Health

Truth: Learning to Meditate Is Really Strange and Not Easy

Emptying the mind is not a simple process, it turns out.

Lesley Dewar There's always another story to tell

3 min readMar 8, 2024

Image of my mother’s Seiko travel clock. It runs on a single battery, AAA, and that lasts for about five years every time. It’s probably 50 years old, this clock, and its gold finish is beginning to tarnish. But it still works to keep amazing time and I can hear the second hand ticking away in the silence of the morning. — Author’s image — my mother’s 50 year old travel clock.

It’s incredibly quiet this morning. The sun is not yet up and a few magpies are calling outside my bedroom window.

I can hear my mother’s clock ticking. It sits on the bench which is my dressing table now and its quiet tick, tick, tick, is a memory of her and how often she was away from us.

I know she took this little clock with her everywhere she went in her own singular travels, and it is a comfort to me to have it in my bedroom on this quiet, quiet, morning.

I have owned it ever since she died and it’s what marks the beginning of every day.

“What time is it, Splinter?” I say to my furry companion as I sit up to check the hour.

Which can be anywhere between 4am and noon. Being retired with only the two cats in the household, we are free to binge all night on Netflix any time we like.

This morning, I am trying to learn to meditate.

That means learning to empty my terribly busy mind and it is not easy. As soon as I feel as though it is…

Mental Health

Truth: Learning to Meditate Is Really Strange and Not Easy

Emptying the mind is not a simple process, it turns out.

This morning, I am trying to learn to meditate.

Written by Lesley Dewar There's always another story to tell