By Eliza Wing
How we proceed through the often repeated, routine aspects of our lives can offer insight into the whole of our life. After all, our lives are made up of these daily moments played out in one sequence or another again and again. Instead of being cause for alarm or despair, we can use this understanding to become more aware of our habits.
So, we may find that we are impatient during a process as simple as brushing our teeth. Thoughts like “let me just be done with this so I can get my coffee, or put on a warmer sweater.”
Or maybe we simply can’t just be brushing our teeth. Instead, we weigh ourselves, we glance skeptically in the mirror, we look around the bathroom and see that we need to pick up those dirty socks.
Anything but really brushing our teeth.
This is natural and human and…. It’s also an opportunity to pay attention to where our mind goes when we are performing routine tasks. Are we always impatient? Worried? Angry? Take note of your thoughts and then begin to explore them for themselves. What is at the root of impatience? Or worry?
Attend to the in between moments — toothbrushing, tying a child’s shoelaces, cracking an egg into a small white bowl. These are the things your life is made of. When you attend to them with patience and presence you learn to be patient with what is, right now. And you open yourself up to the miracle of a sunrise, dew on the grass, a dove perched on a telephone wire. You open to the true miracle that life presents in its own time. Which is also your own time.