There was a book, popular many years ago, called Chop wood, carry water. It was about finding (or seeing, or allowing), the mundane tasks of life to become teachers to your inner-self. When you notice the life-essence within everything that surrounds you, when you feel that essence as you and you as that essence, even the smallest, most tedious tasks show you Life in all its fullness.

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Guiding Thought

Life is beautiful. There is nothing other than Life. Life is within you; Life pours out from you. Everything everywhere is Life. Life is Being. You are Life. Offer all that you are in praise and thanks to all of Life.

Reflection

In a few months I’ll be doing a Journey that I have never done before: Journey of Beauty. As with all the Journeys, I’m doing that Journey to learn and to evolve. Last year, I realized that I have scant understanding of beauty: I don’t think I get it. I have never thought I have an aesthetic sense, I don’t know “what looks good”, etc. I’m a little nervous about that Journey, for that reason.

Yet, when I approached the Journey today, Life is Beautiful, I thought I might have a better understanding than I think I do.

You see, this morning, I was in the kitchen putting dinner, Kaali daal, together in the slow-cooker. The beans I use are whole urad daal. Each and every bean looks exactly the same:

Part of the preparation is to go through all the beans and pick out any small stones that may have found their way into the bunch of beans. Most of the time, I find this a tedious process, spreading out a bunch of beans, then looking over them, each and every one, to find the things that are “not like the others” (the stones).

But this morning, I thought about the unique nature of each and every bean. Like snowflakes that look like flimsy white clumps as they come down, but unique and beautiful crystalline structures when looked at closely, the same is true of each bean. To a superficial eye, the beans all look the same, but in fact, each one is unique and beautiful.

I started paying attention to the details of each bean, trying to notice and appreciate the uniqueness of each one. Then I realized each bean is also a seed of life. wow. When I added that to my thinking, I became almost reverent toward each and every bean.

Then I realized that this process of noticing and appreciating was a form of Love; I was loving each bean! What’s more, every little bit of love poured into each bean will then be ingested when I eat them for dinner, which will then energize me and allow me to love even more! It’s like the cycle of today’s Guiding Thought wrapped up in the chore of cleaning beans.

I suddenly started “seeing” how important it is to pay attention to every detail, every nuance, every bit of Life. Each and every little bit is the beauty of Life. We just have to notice, pay attention, see it, and allow ourselves to be in it fully, for it is already fully in us.