The Altar of Your Life

What rests upon the altar of your life? What are you making sacred with your presence?

Each morning I light a candle and I pray. I fill the kettle and meditate while the water heats. After time on the bench, I prepare hot water and lemon for my first drink of the day.

Someone gifted me with a cup last year. It is simple. Elegant. White on the inside, black outside. No handle. It is meant to be cradled. Inside the rim is written “Rituals…”. The name of a shop in Holland, this bit of advertising reminds me that yes, my life is an altar. Each morning, I squeeze half a lemon into the cup. The wooden juicer fits just so into my palm, the other hand cups the bright half round as the juice spills into the bottom of the white interior. I can be present with the lemon, the juicer, and the cup. I can be present as I lift the kettle and hot water pours out, diffusing the juice.

All of these actions are as simple as the cup. Ordinary. All of these actions become sacred by the fact that I am present and paying attention. My mind isn’t wandering in its list of things to do. I’m not wanting to do anything except be with water, lemon, and cup.

What rests upon the altar of your life? What are you making sacred with your presence?

We can infuse any activity with the scent of the sacred. How does our body touch the chair, how are hands and arms connected to our shoulders? We are present with our bodies as we type – trying to communicate across great distances. What happens when we pass a tree? Do we drink it in with our eyes? Do we say hello to the sparrows? We are present as we walk to work, or lunch, or home.

There is no place that is not holy ground. When we are present – oriented to East and West, North and South, oriented in and out – we find the sacred waiting, everywhere.

What practices connect you? 

#altars #presence #sacred

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#CISPA

Support and (im)Perfect Life

Last week, one of my spiritual direction clients was talking about resisting practice because of feeling so angry about life and the world.

I suggested taking the anger to the practice mat and then said, “Don’t deny yourself that which supports you because you don’t feel perfect.” 

We can give ourselves permission to call upon the very things that help us whether we feel at our best or at our worst. We can give ourselves permission to call upon the very things that help us whether the world feels like it is falling apart around us or as though everything is sunshine and strawberries.

I’ve said it before, and will continue to repeat it: Practice Makes Possible.

When we practice, we have a little more centeredness with which to face the world. When we practice, we connect enough to make better decisions. When we practice, we can better find the strength with which to serve. When we practice, we can remember that the world is varied and so are we. We can breathe it all in. We can exhale. We cannot carry the world, but we can shoulder one small part of it. Practice helps.

We may never feel perfect. The world may never feel perfect. The reality is, imperfection is part of what makes us whole. Wholeness is perfect, even in all of its flaws. Things are as they are. We change them by changing our relationship to them, and this starts inside ourselves. If I make a subtle shift within, that adjusts all of my relationships on out: to family, friends, to world events, to the kid on the street, to the person in line, to bombings and war, and injustice, and explosions, and music wafting toward me on Spring air.

Take it to the mat. The altar. The bench. The studio. Take it to the walk. The bike ride. The conversation.

Find the support you need. Please. We need you well supported. 

#soulsupport #SpiritualPractice #war