Mundane

There often days and weeks of intense work and pressure.  Its fun, its invigorating, high on adrenaline.  When its done I am looking forward to not sleep in as others normally do, but to do mundane stuff. 

To go to the vegetable mandi to look and feel the vegetables while menu plans drift in and out of my mind.  To listen to the chatter and emotions of the other buyers.  The act of folding laundry and putting it away doesn’t need much mind power but it is relaxing to feel the textures, the smell of sun-dried clothes, folding them neatly is as much love flowing through your hands.  Sitting on my balcony with a cup of coffee, watching the fellows cleaning the parked cars, the banter among them and the others who are going about their daily day of delivering ironed clothes, newspapers or milk packets, allows me to observe the community I am part of.   Habits brings so much of a sense of stability in our lives.  The act of making coffee each day and putting out breakfast for us, is a routine that tells me clearly what is important before the day’s busy-ness takes over.  Having been a caregiver for my ageing parents for so many years, the motion of going over each morning to check on them has become a source of anchoring, grateful for every uneventful night that has passed.  So much so, the morning after my mother passed, I woke up and without thinking started to walk over to check on her.  Even paying the bills, gives us a moment to be proud that we have provided well.

Even at work there are repetitive, so called “boring” work, that “needs-to-be” done.   But these are the activities that creates the base or springboard for the exciting work to be launched.  These boring moments give us opportunity to think of ideas.

Cambridge dictionary defines “mundane” as : “ ordinary and not interesting in any way” .  It is the modern life that expects us to chase the extra-ordinary all the time.  What is extra- ordinary without the ordinary?  It is the ordinary which sets us up for the extra-ordinary and again folds us in its warm quilt to rest when the extra-ordinary is done.  In a world of speed, glamour, efficiency and constant metrics drive evaluation, it is the ordinary that can soothe us, ground us and looks after our well – being. 

Let us celebrate the beauty that resides in the mundane.  Let its power quieten our minds and find calmness within us.  The mundane is extra -ordinary.