Wouldn’t you know it? I’m meditating last night, using my prayer beads and instead of my usual mantra, I’m saying, “I humbly bow to God.” Given all the baggage that clings to that word and my feeling that deities are aspects of the Divine and not the ultimate expression of the Divine, a few beads in, I switched to, “I humbly bow to all that is.” Acceptance of reality and my place in it and all that good stuff.

So I’m breathing calmly and smiling and repeating that and images are coming into my head for each bead. Images of deities, the Earth, animals, food, people, the ocean, everything that makes up “all that is.” And sure enough, one of the damn gnats swims into my head. So I humbly bowed to the little f’er and knew my gnaticide was at an end.

I’ve been at work for two and a half hours and haven’t seen a single gnat.