There’s somebody there. But it helps if you slow down and listen. Doesn’t matter where or when, though a beach is a pretty good place to start.

My friend’s words struck me right in the heart, in a good way, so I just knew they were wise.

I was struggling mightily, for months and months, to make sure I had a specific, dedicated time daily to spend in prayer, meditation and reflection. I kept getting hijacked. Self-employed, I have a lot of flexibility. Too much, it sometimes feels. Working from home, I have  tons of fun distractions. Who can refuse a young adult son who wants to talk, right then?

And there are tons more of blah interruptions that just seem to insert themselves.

I mean, have you ever started out to balance the checkbook, only to come to awareness 20 minutes in the basement doing laundry? I mean, hijacked is my middle name. And I haven’t even talked about my relationship with e-mail. Oh, the ways I can just float away, time drunk and not doing what I need and want to do.

I was telling this to my friend Amy, who is very spiritual, and religious in a really nice way (meaning, she isn’t pushy and doesn’t judge). When we were first getting to know each other, she often would say to me at the end of a conversation, “Now tell me what I can pray for you today?” Sometimes she’ll even call and leave that offer on my voice mail. That’s how sweet and faithful she is.

So I was sweating out my sluggardly ways re spiritual time each day when Amy gently posited that many of the activities I do during the day, when I write and talk about addiction, health and healing, might be considered times of communication with my higher self. “Those things are worship, too,” she said.

Oh, right. My higher self doesn’t just come to me during special times set aside. I can also connect during and with any of my daily activities. God doesn’t appear just when I say so in a certain way. Connection is a state of mind and intention, too, not just a slot on the day’s calendar. I could, it seems, make my life a sort of living prayer, even.

Don’t get me wrong. I still need that special time. But for now anyway, it’s more helpful to take the day as it comes than to beat myself up that I didn’t set aside a perfect bubble for what Amy would call devotional time.

Because, actually what I’m craving is not so much time alone with my inner guides (though that is important) as the experience of connecting to the creator that lives within me as me. And I can do that anywhere, any time, if I just slow down and remember who I am, and who sent me.

Thanks, Amy!