The Universe Has a Sense of Humor Too

 I"m taking a class in Zen Buddhist meditation. The class meets once a week, on Fridays, and it's an oasis in a busy week. It's what I need most on those days when I tell myself that I have no time to go to a meditation class. (On other days, I practice meditating on my own, and I mean "practice" in its most literal sense.)

I try to reserve Fridays for activities that a Recovering Perfectionist might consider unproductive; sometimes, I actually manage it. I might have tea with a friend, wander the library, make something. Yesterday, I went to a yoga class, then to a bookstore for coffee and a magazine. I was so relaxed and absorbed in my reading that I forgot that I was due at my meditation class. The class would have been half over by the time I arrived, so I decided to skip it.

I'd been reading Shambala Sun, a magazine I'd seen on the shelf but hadn't picked up until now. Does reading a magazine about Buddhist principles constitute an excused absence for a meditation class? Worth a try. At the very least, It'll make my teacher smile, as it did me.

Image by pkize, from Flickr, under a Creative Commons License.