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Morning ponderings
Mar. 4th, 2004 11:23 amKell emailed me this morning with a doozie of a question:
hello!
how do you practice your spirituality on a day-to-day basis?
just curious.
Here's my reply:
Boy, you do ask the thought provoking questions early in the morning, don't you?
Sometimes I don't. I want to, but its so easy to get caught up in the mundane, that its hard.
Here's the thing I try to remember though, since I believe that the divine is imminant (present within creation), the mundane *is* sacred.
The buddhists practice "mindfulness"--that is, trying to be aware of what you are doing when you are doing it. When you are eating an apple, pay attention to the flavor, the texture, etc. So much of my own dysfunction is played out through escapism, which is the opposite of mindfulness. So I struggle to pull myself back to the now, and to appreciate and be aware of the world.
I also view my own acts of creation as spiritual. Knitting, quilting, writing, the kids, these are all things that I've created. Creation--the ability to create--is the the divine spark within us. To be aware of that gift, and to utilize it, is a sacred and deeply spiritual process. I would imagine that your music is similar for you.
When I was in high school, my father started sewing his own liturgical wear. He made himself several beautiful stoles out of wool. (I don't know how much sewing he had done before this, its the first time I remember seeing him sew though). Anyway, he explained to me that it was an "oblation"....an act that he carried out in a mindful manner, as a gift and a blessing to God. Each individual stitch was a prayer. How cool is that?
hello!
how do you practice your spirituality on a day-to-day basis?
just curious.
Here's my reply:
Boy, you do ask the thought provoking questions early in the morning, don't you?
Sometimes I don't. I want to, but its so easy to get caught up in the mundane, that its hard.
Here's the thing I try to remember though, since I believe that the divine is imminant (present within creation), the mundane *is* sacred.
The buddhists practice "mindfulness"--that is, trying to be aware of what you are doing when you are doing it. When you are eating an apple, pay attention to the flavor, the texture, etc. So much of my own dysfunction is played out through escapism, which is the opposite of mindfulness. So I struggle to pull myself back to the now, and to appreciate and be aware of the world.
I also view my own acts of creation as spiritual. Knitting, quilting, writing, the kids, these are all things that I've created. Creation--the ability to create--is the the divine spark within us. To be aware of that gift, and to utilize it, is a sacred and deeply spiritual process. I would imagine that your music is similar for you.
When I was in high school, my father started sewing his own liturgical wear. He made himself several beautiful stoles out of wool. (I don't know how much sewing he had done before this, its the first time I remember seeing him sew though). Anyway, he explained to me that it was an "oblation"....an act that he carried out in a mindful manner, as a gift and a blessing to God. Each individual stitch was a prayer. How cool is that?
