Jenell Williams Paris writes about awareness and joy
The breakfast dishes (the ones that have to be done by hand) gave me opportunity to practice awareness – when you’re doing the dishes, just do the dishes. But, many of us say, it’s impossible with young children (“it” being growth, progress, enlightenment, meditation, awareness, focus, and so on)! I spent nine minutes washing the dishes and was interrupted at least six times to settle a conflict, wipe a bum, admire what someone did in the potty, find a battery, comfort an owie, and help get a shirt on. I saw anger arise – “Hey kids – get the hell out of my way so I can practice serenity!!”
But it wasn’t the kids that were interrupting – it was my mental formations. …
I was trying to do the ideal dishes – the ones that need to be done in a sunny kitchen in a quiet house. It’s true, I can’t do those dishes, but I can do the dishes I have – the ones in this messy, loud house where there’s always a child’s needs squeezed between the bowl I’m washing now and the knife I reach for next. … When I live in the real world with my real dishes and my real children, I can be responsive. Their needs come fast and furious, but they aren’t interruptions (interruptions to what, after all? the life I’m not even living? the fantasy world in my mind?). Awareness means just living; just doing the dishes, wiping the bums, settling the conflicts, and putting on the shirts. Just that is enough. Just that is joy.