Mama, maybe you need to meditate more.

Coming home with my son last weekend, I was bickering with him, complaining that he expects me to carry everything and do everything. And he looked at me and said "Mama, maybe you need to meditate more".

He's learned that when I'm feeling overwhelmed or angry, I meditate. And while he is quite typical in his only-child thirst for attention, he's able to let me go off and do this, because he knows when I come back, I'll be a much better parent and potential playmate.

The more I meditate, the more I understand life, and other people, and how we all relate to each other. That's why it's called 'insight meditation', and the teachers talk about 'clear seeing' and 'deep understanding'. By calming the mind, we are able to perceive life with a full consciousness, rather than through the filter that our thoughts create. We are able to let go of our faulty sense of identity based in past experiences, let go of our fear based in worry about the future, and fully experience the present moment. And when we do see the present moment, without all the past and future clouding our vision, it's truly beautiful.

I'm going on a camping meditation trip this weekend, with six other brave souls who also think it's a good idea to meditate in the woods. We're crazy. It's the weekend of the Great American Campout, and our wonderful silence will be surrounded by camp songs and people kicking ice-cream makers around. But I'm glad we're going to try, and I'm glad that when we feel like bickering at each other because things aren't pefect, we will already know that maybe we need to meditate more.