Day 128/366 days Towards Self-Mastery.
When you look around your home at the things that are out of place, the debris of life that has found a home on the kitchen bench, resting on the couches in your lounge room, blocking your passage inside the front door, do you despair at another round of chores to put everything into order?
Or do you look at the chaos of your ordinary life and find your glorious liveliness there.
For a very long time I made hard work out of keeping things in order. Attempting to carve out a life, a style, habits of keeping home from a place of not really knowing myself, not living fully.
Today I delight in my walking shoes and socks left carelessly at the front door, my gardening clothes hanging precariously behind the bathroom door. This morning's coffee cup in my reading nook with the local newspaper folded beside it.
I live here!
When my bed still has lumps and folds from carelessly pulled together as I leap out to greet the new day later than expected. When the cushions on the lounge still hold the imprint of my afternoon nap.
These things remind me that I LIVE HERE!
The chocolate wrapper on the kitchen bench, the tea cup on my work desk, the study books piled on the dutch dresser. They are all reminders that this is my home. This is where I do life.
I've come to love the ordinary. The every day imprints of a live being lived.
Dogs barking in the neighbourhood, children playing on scooters and bikes, birds visiting my garden, butterflies resting on the succulents on my outdoor breakfast nook, dandelions flowering on the paths.
The divine dwells in the mundane, the ordinary, and it fills me with delight.
366 days Towards Self-Mastery
When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)
I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.
As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.
My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?
I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.
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