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Today's
quotation:
The
great lesson from the true mystics is that the sacred
is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life,
in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's backyard.
Abraham
H. Maslow
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Today's
Meditation:
I've
lost many opportunities to fully enjoy days or moments
because I've been blind to the beauty and the sacredness
of the ordinary. The world around us truly is holy,
from the very next person that we run into to the flowers
and trees and even the weeds. The home that I live
in has been constructed with love and caring, as have all
the elements of that home, by many, many people who were
making their livings by making houses and parts of
houses. And each of those thousands of people is a
unique, holy creation of life, just as I am.
It's
very easy to ignore the ordinary, for it seems so
straightforward. After all, we've seen it before,
many times. Those daisies in the garden? They
bloom every year, so what's the big deal? But that's
exactly where we go wrong--the daisies that are blooming
there now aren't the same as those that were there last
year, or the year before. They're unique creations
themselves, and until we learn the lesson that by noticing
them, we can see their true sacredness, we won't notice
them.
So
what's so important about noticing the sacred in the
everyday? Simply that if we don't do so, we're
unaware of the riches of our lives. We're like the
man who's doing well, who has enough to eat and pay the
bills, but who doesn't remember that there are thousands
of dollars hidden away in one of his closets. Once
he remembers and finds the money, he feels much richer and
he sees his life differently. The beauty and
sacredness all around us are like that money that's hidden
away--it's ours to admire and enjoy, but if we neglect it,
it might as well be hidden away in a closet somewhere.
The
sacred makes us better than rich. The smile of a
child, the warm west wind, the falling snow or rain, the
majesty of thunder and lightning, the miracles of our cars
taking us where we want to go, the food that has made it
thousands of miles to be on our tables. It's
there. Always.
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