Quite a Bit of Humdrum
Everything is OK Until it Isn’t
Life hums along-grocery lists, bills to pay, dinner out, tires rotated, cupboards to clean- and then one day it doesn’t. It stops humming and starts shouting-what you thought was just another humdrum day becomes an incredible nightmare - reminding us of the often-ignored gift of ‘humdrum’. A misstep, a diagnosis, a revelation, a farewell, a cog in the road-throws it all off balance – rose colored glasses shattered, cortisol levels through the roof, and an untethering of the fibers that hold us gently to earth.
Often jolted by the ‘other’s’ misery or misfortune - it becomes a different story when it shows up in your own Ring Camera – and your circle of love and trust and faith is shaken, while simultaneously illuminated and newly felt into the depth of your own being. Maybe, just maybe, I didn’t realize how much love was there-how much joy they bring-how much I count on them forever.
There are many that believe that religion and faith were born or assembled from a human need to understand the universe – story upon story- with many turning away, some running for the hills and arriving at the ‘just so long as I’m a good person’ and the ‘I know God best when I’m in the garden’ religion or path. But faith can often be the cupboard that holds both fear and hope- love and loss- tethered and untethered. I can’t imagine roaming through life without some glimmer of hope that there is something more out there.
Consequentially, I am prone to prayer and hope. I lay faith at the doorstep of possibility and reach out to the great unknown when both grateful and worried. Science too is a gift of the universe as is the purple of hyacinths, the individuality of each snowflake, the devotion of my dogs, music that touches the soul – and an ongoing list a mile or two long.
If you wake today to humdrum - try to be grateful for the dishes to wash, the dog to walk, the snow to shovel, the grocery list- try not to take humdrum for granted - it is a peaceful place, dependable, filled with possibility and equilibrium. It’s a blank slate on which to color your day and it includes an invitation of hope and faith and mindfulness – the sweet icing on the sticky bun of life. And for all who are in the midst of ‘shaken’ know that you are not alone – it is in the darkest night that light seeks us most fervently.
May your new year be blessed by an inner voice that whispers, sings or shouts your name into a a universe of hope, faith and possibility – and with any luck, quite a bit of humdrum.