I can't say that I have meditated everyday since our 28 days came to a close, but I can say that meditation is always with me.  I sometimes wake in the night and have trouble going back to sleep.  I find myself falling into a meditation when that occurs now.  I might practice loving-kindness, or the body scan. I might just focus peacefully on my breath, relaxing deeper with each breath until blessed sleep comes again.  

   I have found that at certain times during the day I actually crave some moments of sitting and breathing. When I am able to do so it is as much invigorating as it is relaxing.  

   When I sit down to write I am better able to focus on my intent instead of becoming frustrated and moving on to something else or getting distracted to the point where I get up to fold laundry or do the dishes.

   What I find most amazing about this practice is  the affirmation that occurs when you become a part of a collective consciousness.  Just as our twenty eight days was closing, a note came home from my sons school.  It said his fifth grade class would be participating in a kindness retreat.  An organization called Youth Frontiers  does full day workshops to teach children about kindness and compassion with a main intention of deterring school bullying.  They do all sorts of exercises throughout the day, with one at the end where they invite the students to stand up and express kindness towards someone they might have been cruel to, or not stood up for when they knew they should.  Parents were not invited to attend but according to the teachers it was an amazing day.

   When I picked him up from school all the kids were wearing red buttons that say "kindness" in white letters. I couldn't help but feel how connected we all are, and with that I can't help but have faith that goodness can certainly prevail, even in such chaotic times.