It was not so much in what I was doing that I was feeling discombobulated, it was in my thinking. I had failed to stop and think through why I was doing what I was doing so that I could go slow and calm. I had failed to properly label the labor. The few minutes it took me to work through my morning revealed to me that 90% of my off feeling was in my head. The chores and projects were fine. The day was a messy day. Things were going to get messier before they got cleaner, but it wasn’t out of control. My sense of it was.

Lofty goals and expectations are good for us. It’s important to be diligent and to stretch ourselves. But it’s also important to correctly judge the type of work we’re called to. Our domestic arts are very cyclical and continuous. They don’t stop because we’re in the business of tending souls through ordinary things like cooking, cleaning, and laundry.