I’ve meditated in lots of different places – more hotel rooms than I can count – but my favorite nest ever is the place where I sit most days at home in Chicago.

My husband and I have kind of an unusual living situation – we have two condos in the same building downtown right at the lakefront.  In one, we sleep and entertain and spend Sunday mornings reading the paper and he spends his days in his office.  The other is my daytime domain – my office, my art studio, my main prep kitchen, and my meditation corner.  That’s it in the picture you see.  I don’t even know what you call this chair – it spins, it’s nice and deep, and it’s got a bunch of pillows to tuck in here and there.  I keep a few things on the table next to me, not al altar exactly, just little symbols that mean something to me.  There’s a candle – I don’t light it, but I can smell it and something about that smell sets the mood for me.

There are several malas, prayer beads or necklaces depending on your point of view.  You’ve seen them before, they are kind of boho-fashion, but they also have a long history, with meaning to the number of beads and the way they are sectioned off.  I guess you could say that they are the Eastern religion corollary to rosary beads for Catholics.  Anyway, for me they don’t have any specific religious meaning, they are something nice to hold on to – bringing in that sense of touch.  I’ll tell you another thing, one of my personal themes is the idea of uniting left brain and right brain, art and commerce, intellect and intuition, so looping that string of beads around both hands, uniting them, has personal symbolism for me.

And yes, there are crystals – selenite, a gift from a friend, and a few others I’ve been gifted along the way.  I’m not an expert in crystals, and I don’t spend much time thinking about whether or not they have attributes or powers.  I do know that the selenite is said to clear negative energy, and the idea of something from the earth supports the idea of being grounded, and both of those concepts appeal to me.

So, all together, these symbols may not make magic themselves but they lend meaning and are helpful reminders of what I want for myself.