"We want life to have meaning, we want fulfillment, healing and even ecstasy, but the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not where we wish we were. We must look for blessings to come from unlikely, everyday places--out of Galilee, as it were--and not in spectacular events . . . "The often heard lament, 'I have so little time,' gives the lie to the delusion that the daily is of little significance. Everyone has exactly the same amount of time, the same twenty-four hours . . . But most of us, most of the time, take for granted what is closest to us and is most universal.
"The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a Great Cosmic Cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us--loves us so much that the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of everyday life.
"Workaholism is the opposite of humility . . . It is as if I have taken the world's weight on my shoulders and am too greedy, and too foolish, to surrender it to God.
"I have come to believe that when we despair of praise, when the wonder of creation and our place in it are lost to us, it's often because we've lost sight of our true role as creatures--we have tried to do too much, pretending to be in such control of things that we are indispensable. It's a hedge against mortality and, if you're like me, you take a kind of comfort in being busy. The danger is that we will come to feel too useful, so full of purpose and the necessity of fulfilling obligations that we lose sight of God's play with creation, and with ourselves."
--Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work"
Day 17 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him
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