The Sacred in the Ordinary

Because we live in the third dimensional plane on this planet, our days get filled up with a lot of ordinary. Besides the daily tasks of fixing meals, making beds, personal hygiene and going to work, my list usually includes things like yard care, house cleaning, laundry, mending, etc., etc. In fact, our days can be so full of the ordinary that the sacred gets completely squeezed out.

Many years ago as a young, busy mom, I was completely caught up in my to-do list. As I did one chore, I would be going over the rest of the list in my head and feeling stressed that I would never get everything accomplished that everyone needed for me to accomplish. By the end of the day, I couldn't even sleep because I was over-tired, over-stressed and my mind was continuing to go a hundred miles per hour over the seemingly never-ending list of chores. When I tried to create time for the sacred, I found it very difficult to completely stop and to completely focus on the Divine.

Then I learned about the empty interval and began to develop a spiritual practice of creating a period of time where I completely set aside the ordinary - releasing my feelings, releasing my thoughts, releasing my to-do list and creating an intention to be an open receptacle to be filled with the Divine. Difficult at first, but powerful, these set-aside times allowed me to feel peaceful and serene for the first time in my life. Often, however, the serenity lasted as long as it took me to get up and get moving and then it flitted away - like an illusory butterfly.

Eventually, with time, I learned that most tasks of my day took very little to no deep thought to accomplish. . . and I began to develop a way of being present with the tasks while at the same time being empty and open to Spirit. Suddenly, most of my day stopped being ordinary and became sacred. I now find myself in cooking meditations where I sense sacred symbolism in the mixing and blending of colors, tastes and textures to create a satisfying meal. I find myself doing weed-pulling meditations where I see myself not just pulling third-dimensional weeds but see myself removing the things from my life that could choke and kill the beauty that I am trying to enhance in my life. Most of my life has become a meditation where ordinary chores have become symbols for what I want to have happen on the level of the sacred in my life.

Find the peace and serenity of the sacred throughout your day - explore the sacred that can be found within the ordinary tasks of your day.