It's Saturday morning. It's early. Not much is happening in my house; one of the cats has seen me put down food for him. He sat and watched me, as is normal. Then left. As is normal. He will no doubt now play outside for a moment, sort out his morning ablutions, then pad upstairs and find the man in the bed (as is normal)and snuggle under the blanket, proceed to purr really loudly and contently. As is normal.
I am likely to discover the other cat nesteled ON something soft (as is normal). I've yet to find him. Being a dark tabby, he 'blends in' more than the long haired black and white.
The house is quiet. This is very normal and I love it. I like to just sit down on the chair and take a moment to breathe and be grateful. Just stop. Breathe. Really breathe, loudly enough so you can hear it. Then I smile. Then I get up and make home made cafe latte. As is normal.
Whilst the espresso filters out of the machine, I usually end up finishing the bottle of milk and rather than rinse it out, I fill it up, remants of milk still in it and go around the house watering my plants. This is one of those things I read somewhere, that the milk is useful to the plants. I have no idea why I started believing it, but I did and the plants seem happy enough. So it has become part of what's normal. Clinking around the house with my glass milk bottle, nourishing the green. (And yes, we have a milkman - Tom - who brings us our milk to the doorstop! This is another bit of normal that I love in my life).
I bring up one cup of it to the man in the bed, who is snugging with the cat. As is normal, I hear the cat before I even enter the room. I leave the frothy coffee on the side, slip into the bed, dragging attention away from the cat as the man gives me a big hug and holds me in grateful thanks for being me and bringing him coffee. It is normal for this to last only about 30 seconds before the cat realises that his source of love and snugs has been usurped. He comes to paw at both of our faces. We let him into the hugs and he starts to purr again. This is all very normal too. It makes me smile. I'm still smiling as I come downstairs to my computer, sipping my coffee, and enjoying the peace.
All this normality is reassuring, warming and delicious. It puts me in a state of wonder of the heart kind. I just open up my heart and fill it with appreciation of how much this simplicity and routine can make me feel like bursting with awe and peace.
Later on, I will do things that are not normal. That are unusual or varied. I will slip out of the routine and into the unknown. This means I might do laundry, or go to a course, or do some writing, or meet a friend. There is no script for the rest of the day. But all these things bring with them their own wonder. And as I sit there on a Saturday morning thinking through what might happen, I let myself get caught in the wonder of the head. What else, what other magic might today bring me?
As you are reading this, you may already have wandered off to noticing what's normal for you...what are the routines that make your heart warm, that reassure you and wrap you up in deliciousness. The tiny routines are a Way to Wonder, if you let them be. Get into noticing what yours are. And then do them with intention and appreciation for how they have come together and really experience how they make you feel. And if you discover that the routine does not quite fill you up, what might you do to put some reverence and joy into it? What thoughts might you apply to your 'normal' to make them even more special?
Yours with Wonder,
Helena
By the way, today, I found the 2nd cat on my coat, which had slipped off the hook in the night. He's such an on cat, but he does love a little variety with what is normal...
