I sighed and poured myself a glass of wine, it had been a long, rough day and I stretched to relieve the tension in my back as I took my first sip. My brief respite was interrupted by the chime of my cell phone as it heralded the arrival of an e-mail. I pressed a few buttons and read through the latest offering from the zen e-mail daemon... Visualization... imagine all you want in life and it will come to be.... Yeah, right, I thought I'll just conjure up a beautiful woman and all my needs will be fulfilled! I chuckled to myself as I kicked off my shoes and headed into the bedroom to find something more comfortable to wear.
As I was stripping I heard the rumble of thunder in the distance. Oh, great just what I need when I am lonely, tired and horny as hell. I slipped an old worn T-shirt over my head and stepped into a pair of loose fitting shorts, grabbing my meditation mat and heading for the back door.
Most people would think I am insane but I really don't give a fuck what anyone thinks of me. At my age it's a privilege. Old enough to know better but still too young to care fits me well and I wear it with pride, right along with the gray hair and wrinkles. I let myself out the door to the screened in porch. My backyard is a small clearing in the woods. It's large enough that if a tree on the edge fell it would be unlikely to hit me and I figure if I am not the highest object around I am a bit more safe.
Lightning streaked across the sky as I laid out my mat and settled down into the classic cross legged pose in the center of the clearing. Yes, I was going to meditate through a thunderstorm. I've always loved the slow build up and wild release of tension in a storm, to me it's like natures orgasm shaking the ground, with the wind whipping up the passion and the rain so hard it stings your skin. There was a faint whimper from the porch as my two small dogs, both terrified of storms, sniffed my pile of discarded clothing and then ran back indoors where it was "safe".
Goose bumps raised over my naked skin and my nipples hardened painfully as I took several large calming breaths and willed my muscles to relax. The flashes of lightening were becoming more frequent and I could just barely feel the ground tremble as the thunder moved ever nearer. The pain and stiffness of the arthritis in my knees and back slipped away as I focused my consciousness inward gathering calm and strength. I conjured up a healing warmth to run slowly over my limbs and center in the pit of my stomach radiating calm and flushing away all the troubles and cares of the day. In that fleeting moment between focus inward and focus outward that trivial little e-mail intruded and I smiled. Ah, why the hell not. As I shifted focus outward to become one with the swaying grass and waving trees her face entered my mind.