The Sacred Ordinary
Beauty can be found in the simplest, most ordinary moments of our lives. And yet, we so easily take this beautiful world we live in for granted without even realizing it.
Cleaning the house. Tending the garden. Cooking a meal.
These most mundane everyday tasks can take on a sacred quality when they are performed with our total involvement. When we do them with love. When we do them without needing recognition or reward, just doing them as best we can.
I really believe we are in a time right now where this natural, ordinary approach to the situations we encounter in life will bring far better results than any attempt to be brilliant, clever or otherwise extraordinary. Do you know what I mean? We don’t have to make the headlines or be famous. Let’s just do what needs to be done with purpose and focus.
The gifts we have to offer others are received best when we do things simply, one step at a time, with our total attention. Because our life can become extraordinary while doing very ordinary things.
Cutting wood. Planting vegetables. Packing a picnic. Folding laundry.
It’s how we show up to it by being totally present that changes everything. When we give our full attention to what’s right in front of us, even the smallest act becomes a loving meditation.
Yesterday, I was reminded of this in a new way. My sister and I found ourselves in a room filled with beautiful people, most of them strangers. We were gathered to talk about spirit, and at one point, a microphone was passed around for anyone who felt called to share.
A young woman, maybe 28, took the mic with shaking hands and shared that it was the one-year anniversary of losing her mother. You could feel the collective breath in the room.
Because she had the courage to speak, others shared similar pains and struggles. It wasn’t a long period of time, but it was extraordinary the way they came together and held each other in their grief. And as a collective group we were able to hold them as well.
Both my sister and I left the space feeling deeply moved with a renewed level of appreciation for the ordinary. Sometimes difficult life moments help us to see things in a new light. That night I was able to focus on making a nutritious meal, enjoy a warm shower, a magnificent sunset, cardinals in the feeder. The extraordinary is truly here right in the ordinary. Unfortunately, we don’t always realize it.
I am also in the middle of rereading Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. His work reminds me that the present moment is all you ever have. When we bring our full attention to the people who show up in our lives it becomes sacred.
He says that walking the dog, peeling the potatoes, sitting in traffic and being present with others are all opportunities to practice presence, patience and love.
“The present moment is always full of infinite treasures. It contains far more than you are capable of grasping.” – Jean-Pierre de Caussade
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” – Paulo Coelho
Love and gratitude,