Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life

To grasp God in all things-this is a sign of your new birth
- Meister Eckhart

Are you living a tender, ecstatic, gorgeous life? Or are you merely hanging by your fingernails to the niche you have carved for yourself? Do you enjoy your work environment? What do you do to make your life richer when you return home? Do you plunge headfirst to chores? Are you happy?

If the answer is no. You are the only one to blame. Regardless of what you are going through at this moment. You have the power to take charge of your life. You have the ability to change your prospective and understand that your life is a glorious gift.

Open your eyes to the world around you. Take in the trees, the flowers, the birds passing over, breathe deep the scent of rain cling to the air...and let the peace in your heart swell into joy.

Why is it so hard to be joyful? Why are we sometimes blind to the sacred, unable to connect with the divine?

The 14th century English mystic, Julian Norwich said, "The fullness of joy is to see God in everything."

You will find that it's not so hard to be happy. Just choose to be so. Resolve to be more connected to the natural world. Begin each morning with a meditation and fit some kind of exercise into your daily routine. Make an effort to heal your body and mind though a good diet and healthy lifestyle. Choose to purify your body and start to listen to your intuition. Be aware of the signs and symbols at work in your daily life and you will awaken to the natural world.

"If you wish to feel the Divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand." -Buddha

"Wherever I turn my eyes, around on Earth or so the heavens
I see You in the field of stars
I You in the yield of the land
In every breath and sound, a blade of grass, a simple flower,
An echo of Your holy Name." - Abraham Ibn Ezra

"All creatures of our Lord and King, lift up your voice and with us sing...
O brother wind, air, clouds , and rain, by which all creatures ye sustain
O sister water, flowing, clear make music for thy Lord to hear
dear mother earth, who day by day unfoldest blessing on our day." -Francis of Assisi

"Earth is crammed with heaven
and every bush aflame with God.
But only those who see take off their shoes." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Make your life sacred. Take time out to see. Don't let the hurry and worry of life take the magic out of your existence.

"The world is too much with us, late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours." - William Wordsworth

But just how do we escape from our routine? How do we reconnect to the natural world and move within the slower, more harmonious rhythms of life?

The practice of meditation, prayer even preforming a morning ritual are a few ways to begin. When you take time to turn inward you will begin to see that you already perform many morning rituals. Now begin to do them mindfully.

Then mindfully take time to incorporate some new rituals into your daily life: keeping an alter, light a morning candle, whisper a morning prayer of gratitude, silently focus only on your breathing as you visualize what you want to accomplish during the day… all of these are examples of simple morning rituals and all of these work to pull your awareness from the mundane and shift it to the sacred. Through daily rituals we are able to recalibrate our energy and connect with the divine.

It's different with everyone. I am such an advocate of ritual, not necessarily tradition, but ritual that lets us have a chance to be or at least act holy. Inviting ritual into your life with even a small gesture will slowly begin to bring peace into your life.

We all interact differently through rituals. I follow the natural cycles of the earth. For me the new moon is a time for renewal, a time to begin anew. Sara carries rosary beads with her and worries them with her fingers when she is in need of Angelic assistance. Will meditates every morning tuning into his higherself while Wendy lights the incense on her alter before her first cup of coffee begins to brew. And Stephani practices the Agni Hotra at sunset.

Creating your own personal ritual is easy. Remember the important thing is to discover what is important for you to honor and make it a ritual. The gesture could include candlelight, a prayer, a specific place either inside or out. It could include water for purifying or incense for celebration, or could include textiles or icons obtained in faraway places. Nothing is unless you make it so with intention. Practicing daily ritual is also a key stone of the magical life.

There are many simple ways to incorporation ritual into our daily lives: keeping an alter, lighting a morning candle, whispering a morning prayer of gratitude, silently focusing only on your breathing as you visualize what you want to accomplish during the day… all of these are examples of simple morning rituals and all of these work to pull your awareness from the mundane and shift it to the sacred.

With enraptured gaze we beheld the white moon rising quietly behind the tall trees, the silvery rays it was casting upon sleeping nature, the bright stars twinkling, in the deep skies, the light breath of the evening breeze making the snowy clouds float easily along; all this raised our souls to heaven." -Therese of Lisieux

Seasonal awareness, awareness of the solstices and equinoxes and reflecting seasonal changes in our own person practices, allows us to attune our own personal energy to the energy of the natural world. Celebrating these ancient rituals are a way of attuning with the magical tides, to recognize the rhythms of life, death and rebirth. Living a magical life is a way of living and working with nature to harmonize with the world and to recognize that we are a part of it.

"Master of the Universe,
Grant me the ability to be alone;
among the tress and grass-among all growing things-
and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer,
to talk with the one to whom I belong." -Nachman of Bratslav (1772- 1810)