It’s Ground Hog Day. While an image of the wascally whistlepig may float across my mind, the more enduring sense of the day for me comes from the 1993 movie with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. In the movie, a weatherman lives the same day over and over again. After moving through denial, anger, and despair, he eventually devotes himself to helping people, saving them from harmful accidents, and offering them his kindness and love.
He learns to find the sacred in the every day.
He learns to find the sacred in the every day.
While we may think of sacred as something relating to religion, it can also mean “something highly valued and deserving great respect” (thanks Merriam-Webster). I imagine that each of us have particular things or experiences we regard with reverence and respect. That is to say,
We all venerate.
While the sacred offers a deep and meaningful experience, it also may create a difficult expectation. In seeking the sacred, we may turn to beautiful things (sunsets, fresh snow in the pines) or grace-filled experiences (child in grandparent’s lap, joyful reunions, kittens at play). We may even try to create (or recreate) an experience worthy and deserving of reverence.
Sometimes, these efforts work – that’s why we go back to them. However, when, despite our efforts, the encounter falls flat, it’s extremely frustrating. Often, we are forgetting a critical factor:
The sacred is not out there. The sacred resides in you.
The things and experiences we hold as sacred are held as such not because of qualities inherent to them. The sacred exists within each of us and is brought to our attention as we awaken to it. Items or experiences may evoke the sacred within us through the powerful dynamics of the moment. Yet, it is in our being alert to the sacred in the moment that creates the deep, meaningful experience.
Reverence, love, compassion – these are ways we engage the world and they may be found in every experience, every encounter…the good, the bad, and the ugly...day after day after day. We need only awaken to them.
Quote
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again. Joseph Campbell
Web
Here’s another view on Finding the Sacred in Every Day (read now)
We all venerate.
While the sacred offers a deep and meaningful experience, it also may create a difficult expectation. In seeking the sacred, we may turn to beautiful things (sunsets, fresh snow in the pines) or grace-filled experiences (child in grandparent’s lap, joyful reunions, kittens at play). We may even try to create (or recreate) an experience worthy and deserving of reverence.
Sometimes, these efforts work – that’s why we go back to them. However, when, despite our efforts, the encounter falls flat, it’s extremely frustrating. Often, we are forgetting a critical factor:
The sacred is not out there. The sacred resides in you.
The things and experiences we hold as sacred are held as such not because of qualities inherent to them. The sacred exists within each of us and is brought to our attention as we awaken to it. Items or experiences may evoke the sacred within us through the powerful dynamics of the moment. Yet, it is in our being alert to the sacred in the moment that creates the deep, meaningful experience.
Reverence, love, compassion – these are ways we engage the world and they may be found in every experience, every encounter…the good, the bad, and the ugly...day after day after day. We need only awaken to them.
Quote
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again. Joseph Campbell
Web
Here’s another view on Finding the Sacred in Every Day (read now)
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