I've been reading a book called Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert which inspired me to try to attain inner peace through meditation. She describes her search for peace and balance so hilariously and so well that when she finally attains it, you kinda go: AAAWW I want some of THAT!

The premise is that we (humanity) are far too distracted by external things and circumstances and our emotional states vacillate like a pendulum depending if our situations are good or bad. This rang VERY true for me. I am either 'YAAAY life is so divine' or 'BOOHOO I HATE my life', and nothing ever middle ground in between. So, the book states if we can attain inner peace, a relationship with God (or higher power or whomever you would like to call him / her / it) we can always rely on that centredness to help us through ANY circumstance that comes our way and remain calm and happy no matter what.

GUHRATE, I thought, am going to start meditating immediately. I am usually up with the birds at 5am anyway so what have I got to lose. I went onto a website about meditation yesterday and discovered the simplest way to start the process, is just to sit quietly, still your mind, breathe and concentrate on your breathing. Let thoughts go in and out but don't hold on to them – let them go. Wonderful. So, there I was at 6.10 this morning trying to do just that. I was sitting in my pj's, legs crossed, breathing for about uhm 3 minutes, when I heard a screech from the bathroom.
'MOMMY, THE CAT POO'ED IN THE BATHROOM… IT'S DISGUSTING!!'

I tried to ignore it and centre myself to no avail. Eventually my door burst open and in rushed my daughter so I gave up. Dragged my sorry (un-centred) self into the bathroom to go and survey the damage. It WAS disgusting. I won't go into detail, suffice to say I spent the next 10 minutes cleaning up cat poo and cursing the feline members of my family. There goes my Zen attitude. Clearly God is having a big laugh at me today. Sigh. I shall persevere and try again tomorrow morning, however.