The Sacred Ordinary

Each day starts out the same – the sun lifts itself with apparent ease over the eastern horizon. Sometimes the rising is accompanied with a spectacular display of colour and variation, other times it goes unnoticed behind the clouds.

Each year passes through the same cycle of seasons – the cold winds of winter give way to the sweet taste of spring which in turn is the prelude for the lusty growth of summer which then ebbs into the harvest of autumn.

Each life begins at birth and passes through the same phases of childhood and adulthood as every other life.

One would think the sameness of the seasons and cycles would seep into a monotonous monologue that would bore the eye and dull the ear should one pause to take notice. Instead, what we have before us and within us, is an ongoing, same but ever-changing, ordinary but very sacred liturgy. This liturgy is the creative work of an Artist who succumbs to the limitations of seasons and cycles and then displays and invites unlimited interpretations of it over and over again. If you have eyes to see and ears to hear…

Mary Oliver asks, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”.  Annie Dillard says that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. The writer of Ecclesiastes rather depressingly says, “There’s nothing new under the sun”.  But then that same old sun comes up again garbed in a whole new way, showing the underside of her skirts with nary a second thought.

We are all invited..                                    IMG_0271

 

Published by Judy

On the edge of Waterloo county, resting sedately on knoll, is an old stone house looking out towards the Grand River. This stone house and farm has been in my husband's family for years. We have been graced to call this place home for the last thirty years. Our best crop has been our four children. After years of immersing myself in raising and educating our family, the proverbial nest has slowing been emptying, opening up space for me to fill with other pursuits. Both writing and photography have been knit into my everyday living since I was very young. Sharing them is both a bit of a dream and a nightmare. But living small and in fear shrivels up a life. My thoughts are musings on God, aging, family, and simply living. My shelves are lined with books, my baskets are brimming with skeins of yarn, my closet shelves are stacked with apparel, my cellar shelves are chock full of home canning - all testaments to my inclinations. Our journeys are not solitary affairs. As I share bits of my journey with you, I hope you will be enticed to look more closely, listen more attentively, and live with abandon. May God's peace rest on your journey. Judy Mae Naomi

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