I’ve started bringing Frieda into the barn for chores, something I would not have imagined a few months ago, as she would have gone after the cats or the donkeys. She lies and watches, still and good.

This morning, Maria and I drove to Bennington, Vt., where we meditated with a small group of people led by a rabbi, a scholar of meditation. He is a gentle and thoughtful man, and he began meditating with the idea that we are all born with open and willing hearts, and the process of living covers us with grime and dirt, and hardens us and closes us up.

In meditation, he said, we can began the process of cleaning off some of that grime, and return to our natural states, to our willing hearts. I thought when he said that of seeing all the fresh white snow turn gritty and black over the days and weeks, and I think that is what he meant.

In meditation, I thought of my mind as a windshield washer, swiping away one layer of grime and dust after the other, something of the personal process I have been undertaking the past few years. Maria has always had an open and willing heart – you can see it in the way she and the animals talk to one another. I love this meditation, loved the feel and nature of it. Frieda has a willing heart, and we are helping her clear away the grime and grit. Meditation is a powerful step forward in my spiritual life.