Finding Reverence . . .

“Let knowledge grow from more to more

But more of reverence in us dwell;

That mind and soul, according well,

May make one music as before.”

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I think I was probably in my forties before I was ever able to take a holiday all on my own. My children were mostly teenagers by then and I really felt the need to go off somewhere all by myself and think for a time, sleep in . . . un-interrupted for twenty four hours if I wanted to, spend hours in contemplation without having to worry about anything or anyone else … unfortunately I couldn’t afford to go off to a special retreat or anything like that, which would have been ideal, and so instead I went off to my Sisters’ for a few days, which was just as noisy and busy a place as my own had been, but still . . . it was some else’s noise and some else’s busy mess, and not my own. A change of scene is as good as a holiday, or so they say.



There is something most beautiful about the hush of reverence that can envelope you when you go off somewhere all on your own. Reverence is an altered state of consciousness. A place of being, where you feel awe and wonder, all because you know you are in the presence of Spirit. You know the feeling well . . . it’s the very reason we all begin to speak in hushed tones when entering a cathedral or other large place of worship. It is a feeling that wraps you in perfect peace, in a place where there is no past and no future, only the beauty of the here and now of special moments when you are at one with Heaven and earth . . . your body and your soul being singular with each other.

I hadn’t realized then, that I did not need to go away to a special place to achieve this special reverence, this solitude. I didn’t know that I had the capacity to have this feeling and this rest deep within myself all along. It has been something I have only discovered now, in my later years, but something I wish I had taken the time to find when I was younger. You can achieve this sense of being whole, through meditation or quiet prayer, or it can be through the simple task of creating something beautiful . . . be it a special meal, or an act of sewing something special for yourself or someone else, picking up a brush to paint, weeding the garden, washing the dishes . . . Concentrating on one simple task, one task at a time and doing it with care and attentiveness can invoke serenity and reverence in our lives, without the need to take oneself off to a cloistered nunnery or retreat. We don’t need to run away to find peace of mind, or solitude. It can be woven into the very fabric of our daily lives.

Gratitude is indeed the portal to being able to experience more reverence in our daily lives. I once read a quote that said, “If the only prayer you say in your daily life is ‘thank you’, that would be enough.” I can’t remember who said it, but I know from experience that it’s true. The joyful life that we are meant to be living starts with the sense of reverence we can seek, find and restore to our daily lives, the sacred things that we can find in the very ordinary, as long as we go about the process of seeking with gratitude in our hearts. We can be reverent and at peace, right where we are . . . true joy and reverence really begin at home.

(no recipe today)