As my husband and I endure the trials and tribulations of parenting three boys, I have admittedly questioned whether it is a rewarding, or thankless job to be a parent.

MEDITATE OR MEDICATE: My meditation practice began recently when working for a hot digital marketing firm in Aspen. A stimulating position with the type of creative people I thrive off of, the modern office was located in a yellow refurbished Victorian on Main Street, smack dab in the heart of Aspen, Colorado.

It was the kind of job I had always dreamed of BUT at the time I was juggling a lot, and could not turn my mind off from all the worry that raising teenagers in a legalized marijuana resort town brings.

Even our non-teenager, our wide-eyed youngest of our three boys, was showing signs of emotional behavioral problems, falling to pieces if somebody looked at him wrong, or running out the door during homework time yelling that he was going to find himself a new family.

Being no mastermind in the art of child psychology, and not having the funds to enlist experts to test for behavioral issues that we feared all three of our boys had, the wheels would not stop whirling in my head as I tried to figure out how to fix all that seemed broken.

My method of escape from it all was either to listen to highly energized dance music and power up the mountains in my back yard on my Santa Cruz Tallboy mountain bike or find a friend with a multi-colored glass pipe to puff off of, or both - what? sound hypocritical? Well I am an adult, of legal age, and I do live in Colorado and alcohol tends to make me do crazy things like buy horses at silent auctions (you'll have to read my blog for that story).

Always plugged in, always online, and always thinking, I desperately needed to learn how to quiet the noise, lest I make myself sick.

One day, after hiking up 1,000 feet, I searched for, and found, the perfect meditation spot which appeared to have been used before for this very purpose.

Sitting with my legs crossed, my body energized from the hike, I set my timer on my smartphone, closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, giving myself 10 minutes to calm the noise. Twenty minutes later I opened my eyes and all my senses were electrified revealing; snow-capped mountains, the brilliant choir of birds, the vibrational buzz of bees and flies, the scurrying of chipmunks and squirrels through fallen leaves. Thus my meditation practice began, and the windows to the magic from my childhood reopened.

Since I have gotten deeper into my practice, serendipitous events have been happening all over the place, as if something or somebody is trying desperately to let me know that the magic is all very real. I feel like a curly-haired olive skinned rendition of Snow White as wild animals get closer than usual, and yes, it does occur to me that I might be going mad (a bird just flew into my window while I write this, no lie, he walked away a bit stunned but I think he's okay).

To intellectualize what is happening, I listen on Audible to books like; "Waking Up" by Sam Harris and "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. I also speak to the higher beings that enter my life, from Rabbis to Pastors. I have been blessed by Tibetan Monks and told that I am surrounded by a golden aura and angels. These comments are gifts that I treasure and hold deep in my heart.

As for learning how to parent teenagers, my husband and I have had a fantastic counselor who comes to our home, no matter the time of the day or night. As guided, we teach our children how to become accountable for their actions and we no longer allow ourselves to worry about the future.

Between the counseling and the meditating, there is no more noise, just a peaceful calm that stays with me from moment to moment. Instead of trying to run away from it all I dive in, inhaling every moment and getting chills from the precious moments spent with my beautiful children, letting out little guffaws of laughter at the funny sense of humor nature has when things don't go so well.

I'm still not completely certain as to whether I am going insane or in the beginnings of a true awakening but regardless, it is a fantastic journey, and as difficult as parenting can be, now when I weigh out the good and the bad of parenting, the good consistently wins, and I'm happy.