Thus goes the tide....
I have to hurry here. So many have to type more later. Glad to know that wind chimes were only for keeping the bad faeries away.
Probably why I felt that they as I do.
About the cats... didn't I read that Jessica MacBeth's cat was a bit un-nerved with her when all the posters of faes were laid out? I am thinking that they (perhaps all animals) sense them. For cats as with bringing in anything new, there is that testing period to go through.
I believe Alissa's advice and the meditations methods she gave are great. Alissa, you always have a good word and sound advice!
Kirali, some of what I am typing is observation and some is from my meditations. I fully agree to lay aside any expectations. But do, relax, and let go of what the practical mind is telling you is reality. Really be like a child with an open and broad mind. If you are a person that can get into a good book and feel you know the characters as if living people, or so involved in a movie that you react to it, you are able to meditate. I truly believe you would be good at it too, because of the talk you wrote of color. Creative people meditate without sensing it as that and without it being the true sense of meditation. True sense of meditation meaning the sitting, relaxing, breathing, the letting go, making the time alloted to meditate. People that are empathic and also those highly able to be hypnotize are prone to be good at being able to use meditation in this formal sense. It is an involvement of the mind of freeing itself from the practical and the rational.
I don't know if you bowl or not. I do. I am using this as an example of a sort of meditative thought (focusing). Very often you will see a bowler, of course wanting to make a strike, bowl exactly the same as the person on either lane next to them and sometimes even one lane beyond that. They will have the exact same pins remaining. I sometimes do this too. We are influenced by the way the other person's ball rolled and we repeat the same action. These are people highly able to release the mind and respond to other stimulus well. When I am trying not to bowl the same as what someone next to be did. I, because I do meditate, can pause briefly on my approach, taking in cleansing breathes and basicly put up barriers to the lanes next to me, focusing only on my lane and the pins in front of me. I literally try to enivision white, misty clouds where the gutters are.
If you read the tarot, you notice the relationship in the suits, like for example the cards ace to ten, you see an ebb and a flow. It is kind of a undulating pattern, sort of a two steps forward, one step back, instead of a steady progression. From meditation, I believe all things have this. For us it is our life, namely in our breathing. Maybe it is life literally for all things as well.
Most guides/books on meditation will tell you to do one of two things. Breath normal and make no change from you regular breathing and the other is trying to do deep breathing and hold it before releasing it deeply and slowly. What some will say and I find usually happens is that you can start with the normal breathing that we have, (which most people really are shallow breathers and don't take in deep cleansing breathes)... But eventually with calming the mind we starting taking in longer breathes and then there is the very tranquil, unthinking natural, a peaceful breathing that isn't rushed, isn't focused to make purposefully long.
For me I find one of the easiest ways to use to meditate is to think of the ocean and it correlating with my breathing. (Maybe this is an Aquarius think about me, lol.) See and sense the flow of the ocean in and out, and your breath, in and out as the same. I feel this is also grounding self, connecting with the earth and intuition. If you love to flow on the water, this is a great visual for thinking this too. When you are starting and you are at the time with thoughts cluttering for your attention, this is a phrase that I made up that is useful here. It allows you to focus on your breathing and the ebb and flow of it and the ocean. It has built into it what you are suppose to be doing, the inhale or the exhale breath. "On" is inhale, "Out" is exhale. Here is what I say to myself as I calm and think on my breathing:
"On the shore........
Out to sea.......
On the shore........
Out to sea.......
On the shore.......
Out to sea..."
It is extremely simple. Do that for several minutes. Then with every breath you are naturally thinking the ocean and it naturally slows your breathing to a calm and nature state, at that point you can let go of the words of it in your mind. Allow whatever to come in to your mind happen, if there is nothing at all, be at peace with that and just continue using it. You are nonetheless benefitting yourself. If you ever find yourself thinking on mudane work or stuff you have to do, go back to the words.
I have to close, I do have some thoughts on your meditative thinking other day and I do believe you were certainly meditating then.
Ohhh, also, if you ever think you aren't in meditation... and then you are disrupted by someone... you will know without doubt if you were meditating! A really strong comparison of this for me is what is similar to is when you have watching a film in the dark and you are so adjusted to that, then without notice, someone turns the lights on, with you being blinded with the sudden change. You can't hlep but being very disoriented for several minutes.