Prayer And Meditation

The Eleventh Step of recovery programs speaks specifically about prayer.  The wisdom of the step is that it refers to "Prayer and Meditation."  I think of "prayer," as me talking to God about my agenda.  The assumption is that God is listening.  This is where I ask for stuff, maybe say thank you, or give praise for something, or read holy scripture.  "Meditation," for me is when I stop talking and start to listen to God.  Now I must do more than merely stop talking. I must stop focusing on my thoughts if I am going to listen.  All meditation methods are to help me to stop listening to myself when it is God's turn to communicate to me.  If I am at a meeting of people and someone begins to share some thoughts, I will hear nothing of it if I pay attention to my thoughts, such as do I need to fill up my gas tank soon, do I have the right shoes on for the snow that is coming today, do I need to refresh my coffee cup, and so on.  Talking to God and not listening to someone else, much less not listening to God, is all about me.  "I am all I think about," is not a very fulfilling life.