It’s the stuff we have to do that doesn’t seem to get us anywhere: laundry, floors, bathrooms, groceries, paying bills – the list goes on. The work is noticed and appreciated only when it doesn’t get done because it’s only in its absence that we see its true value.
2024 begins in a little less than fourteen hours. I think it’s a good time to take a look at all the tasks and chores that life requires to see what blessings they might contain. Want to lend a hand?
I think the New Year creates this kind of assessment—of what am I doing, day to day, and where is it taking me. Tasks, grocery-shopping—you’re really talking about the basic, nitty gritty stuff. And that’s finally where the spiritual life—or any thoughtful, considered life takes us. The saints all tell us that we can find God, find joy in washing the pits and pans… but most days I’m not buying it. But maybe all we can hope for—us mere mortals—is to know that’s true in epiphanies that come every so often or maybe even rarely.
I’m good at finding a spiritual dimension to many of life’s tasks, but a few are still challenging. But Dorothy was right – if we can’t find it in our own backyard, where else will it be? Thanks, David! Peace, Johnna