Holy Habits

We are all creatures of habit. I maybe more so than others.


I like my kitchen to be clean and orderly when I get up. I like to drink my coffee in the silence of an early morning. I do my best thinking and problem solving in the morning in front of the mirror in the bathroom. I like to plan the week’s dinner menus at the beginning of the week. I like to drink wine from a large glass. I get a thrill from receiving mail, the paper kind, hand delivered by a mail person.


Not too long ago, running was far from a habit, it wasn’t even on the list of possibilities to become a habit. Now it is as much a part of my life and my routine as brushing my teeth.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle-


Routines are ordinary, standard procedures, often performed mechanically and monotonously, without thinking, like putting on your shoes. On the other hand, when something bigger is associated with a simple act, like putting on your shoes, it becomes holy...a ritual. Putting on my shoes for running or soccer is an act of nervous anticipation. I always put on and lace up the left shoe first (for good luck, of course). For me, running and soccer are habits which have become holy.


At what point does a habit become holy and evolve into a ritual? I believe inspiration makes the difference. We can perform every day tasks (folding laundry, preparing meals, getting groceries) with mundane mindlessness or we can turn the commonplace into simple acts of love. George Strait says it perfectly in a song “Life’s not the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.” Now I’m not saying that folding clothes or grocery shopping is going to take my breath away, but at least I have the opportunity to inject a higher level of awareness and love into an ordinary little chore and give it meaning.


What other areas of our lives are in need of inspiration? This is a good question. We all know people who have a great passion for something they do, whether it’s the game of golf, cooking, or photography, etc. But not everyone knows what their true passion is and finding your true passion is not as simple as it may seem. One of the definitions of passion is “the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, especially something alien to one’s nature or one’s customary behavior.” This really struck a chord with me and running. I can run. I get to do it on my own, at my own pace. I go out, in the rain and the wind. I run up hill and down. Even when I’d rather not, I go out...this is how I make the mundane holy.


So maybe we should all get off the couch of monotony and look for inspiration in our every day routines...look to illuminate our daily paths. Our world will surely be a better place for it. And maybe we just might find our true passion along the way.