Sputter and miss

Sometimes, when my meditation practice becomes a particularly frustrating struggle, I find it helps to think of myself as a sort of electric car, stopping in the midst of my daily rounds at the familiar charging station to plug in and refresh the battery.

I'm quite certain this is not a theologically sound concept -- if only because it perpetuates that sense of the Divine Source as being wholly outside, wholly other.  But it does honor the idea that there is at least a spark of that source within us, and that the same power -- love?  compassion? hope? -- infuses us both. 

But the reason it works for me during these low periods is that it gives me an image to return to (we artists need images when words fail us) when my mind goes drifting off.  And this particular image provides both a path for my imagination and a reminder -- when the itch to get out of the chair and back to the to-do list becomes too strong -- that I do occasionally need to stop and re-charge; that without this quiet time the drive to serve that powers so much of what I do will begin to sputter and miss...