I am grateful for ordinary life. So, Gentle Reader, you might ask, what is ordinary life? Or you might rather wonder, what is it not? There is the surface, or the obvious, take on it: getting up in the morning, going to the toilet, having a shower, grooming yourself, dressing yourself, cleaning your home, making coffee, having breakfast, listening to the news, reading the newspaper, going online, getting exercise, going to work, school or an appointment, getting fresh air, getting on well with your colleagues, friends, acquaintances and the people you encounter every day in passing, paying your taxes, buying groceries, cooking dinner, visiting friends, going out to a movie, concert or just for a friendly cup of coffee, feeding your pet, cuddling your cat, walking your dog, taking care of the children, (if you have any) playing sports, watching TV, shopping for shoes, going out for a beer, going to church, mosque, synagogue or temple, or going out for brunch instead, being out in nature, doing art, listening to music, playing music, reading a book (remember books?) writing something interesting, writing a blog (which could be interesting!) flying to a foreign country, learning and speaking another language, taking a university course, making new friends, being kind to the less fortunate, giving time for volunteer work, going to bed at a reasonable hour and going to sleep and dreaming outrageous things until you wake up in the morning, more or less refreshed and ready to take on a new day.
But look under the surface, just a little bit, and what do you perceive? Getting up in the morning and transitioning from the magic realism of dreams and waking life isn't always for the faint of heart. You have generally been somewhere, doing things, experiencing things that could only be called extraordinary, or even bizarre, at times horrifying. This is the alternative reality we keep returning to night after night of our lives, and none of the medical, spiritual or mental health experts are yet agreed on what really is going on for us while we are dreaming.
There is something wonderful about going to the toilet, this assurance that what nourishment we have eaten and what liquid we have imbibed has been well used by the marvellous and still poorly understood intricacies of our bodies to sustain us and keep us healthy and well. When we shower we are celebrating the gift of water and the symbolic renewal of a kind of baptism and cleansing that prepares us for the new day. This really is a highly spiritual, symbolic and sacramental act, and I think that by being conscious of the beauty of this can really start our day with a lift. By grooming ourselves we are affirming that we have value and that the impression we present to the world is a reflection of how we value ourselves and likewise with the way we dress. By cleaning our home, which I do every day, we are reminding ourselves that our space of living is a place of value and thus we are making this space sacred.
Making coffee is a reminder that we have addictions, in this case to caffeine, and that we are thus, through our weakness, contributing to the global coffee cartel. We are also participating in the beauty and sunshine of the tropical countries throughout the world where our coffee is grown. If the coffee is fairly traded then we are also contributing to the wellbeing and good living conditions of those who harvest and process the coffee. By the same token we might also be reminded that with coffee that is not fairly traded we could be simply adding to the misery of poorly paid, exploited and mistreated plantation workers, just to satisfy our addiction. In the case of breakfast, as with coffee, try to think of where your food is coming from. If you are having eggs, bacon or cheese, yogurt or milk, try to imagine the animals who produced your meal, how they were treated, what they suffer; in the case of bread, porridge or cereal, imagine the vast fields that produced the grains and all the labour that has gone into making them ready for our consumption.
I could go on, Gentle Reader, but boring you to extinction is not part of the mission statement for this blog, and neither is doing your thinking for you. Use your imagination and let this be for you a portal to a new enjoyment of the every day and ordinary.
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