Who knew cleaning out the cat litter could be so cathartic. Cleansing. For both the cats and me. Who would ever have thought that the seemingly mundane tasks of vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, could become something meditative, cerebral and revered. It's all perspective. I recently learned that by turning our so-called workaday routines into observed rituals, we can reinvent our entire beings. We can become wholly immersed in the moment of doing whatever it is we have to do, and be transformed. It is transformational indeed. And it's all perspective. How you look at things. Perceive them. Our entire attitude changes by how we look upon things. By changing the perception of our mundane routines and thinking upon them as privileged rituals. Rites of passage. A privilege to be able to carry out. Indeed. Instead of dreading the routines of our daily lives and existences: walking the dog, weeding the garden, making dinner; thinking of them instead a
I love the early dawn. The light that slowly creeps its way through the curtains at 5 a.m. in the summer, a little later in the fall and winter. But it's there. Letting everyone know that the day is arriving. My body clock always seems to wake me around that time. I imagine it has been the same for countless centuries, that man is awakened by the early dawn. The birds are already awake, as they sing out their daily greetings. I always enjoy that time of day. The day before the fray. In a previous career as a morning news anchor I awoke at 3:30 every morning. I had to be at work by 5 a.m., just as the dawn was breaking. It was a glorious time - driving through the sleepy streets which were surprisingly full of other drivers too. Commuters perhaps who were on their way to the big city to their jobs. I always noticed the lineups were long at the 24-hour drive-through coffee shops, even at that hour. And I still sometimes awaken at 3:30. It wa