Not Judging the Mundane

Everyone loves excitement and new experiences in their lives. We take vacations to places both familiar and exotic, reveling in the differences of that place as opposed to our ‘usual’ place. We watch movies and hear concerts for stories and music played live rather than recorded, and we read books to learn about so many things beyond our own world. And we will continue to do so because it enriches us, makes us think about people and the world in a different way. Sometimes it reinforces what we already think, and it is good to see those familiar things expressed from a different point of view. 

What about the mundane things in our lives? Those less exciting parts of life that need to be done like the laundry, cutting the grass, doing homework, or reports at work, and all those things we have judged to be less-than-interesting. What about those? Many of us approach those things with an ‘I just need to get this done,’ usually as quickly as possible, before moving on to something else. And that’s fine. Cutting grass as I was growing up was hardly my favorite thing to do, but it was one of the expectations my parents had of me, and there was no negotiating this. So I did it. At first, I was a bit irritated, especially in the hot, humid Midwestern summers that made me think this time would be better spent on a tennis court: if I were going to be out in this weather, I might as well be doing something I really enjoyed. So I begrudgingly finished cutting the grass, and then headed to the local courts of a game of tennis with a friend. What if, instead of bolting through the task at hand—cutting the grass—I had simply accepted it as a part of my life, which it was, and gave it the attention it deserved. Doing a good job, just because it was one of my responsibilities, and doing it well enough to actually take pleasure in the fact that I had done it well? That would have been beyond me at that time of life, but looking back at that, what if I had given it the best I could do, and then gone off to do something I deemed more satisfactory? As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, be fully mindful of what you’re doing, as you’re doing it. He promises nothing but peace of mind and soul when we operate that way. 

Taking each thing, or task, or challenge, as life presents it to us, giving it our full attention, and navigating it as best we can is a great example of living fully in the present. As the present is all we really have, why do we all fight this? Most of us have ‘better things to do’ in most cases, and we would really rather get to them, rather than reach them through the other obstacles in life. These little, seemingly mundane activities are actually a fantastic time to teach ourselves to give due attention the folding the laundry, washing the dishes, and, of course, cutting the grass; learning how to quickly focus our attention for the best result possible. And that is a skill anyone can take to the bank, as the saying goes, as it will become the core of how we navigate life and face problems.