“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.                                                                                                         

Brushing your teeth. Taking a bath. Chewing and eating your food. Chopping the vegetables. Making breakfast. Cooking meals. Cleaning the house. Dumping the garbage. Making the bed. Doing the dishes. Loading the washer and dryer. Sorting and folding the clothes. Shopping for weekly groceries. Mowing the garden. Clearing up the snow. Creating presentations for the next meeting. Getting ready for work. Driving to work. Ironing the clothes.

Mundane tasks. Some are everyday chores and tasks that HAVE to be done. Some are routine tasks that MUST be done. Tasks and chores that don’t excite you anymore. They are the “boring” tasks. You wish someone would come and do them for you so you could curl up with a nice book or watch TV or take time to relax and meditate.

I remember the first few months in my first job. Making breakfast and lunch in the mornings. Getting ready and going to office. Writing programs and making sure they work without any bugs (that’s what they call errors in software programming). Coming back home in the evenings after a long day and making dinner. Shopping for groceries during weekends. Washing and ironing clothes every other week.

It was all exciting in the beginning. I felt all grown up and responsible. I was learning to cook and I looked forward to making lunches and dinners - tremendous scope for creativity:) But the novelty soon wore off. There was no time for myself. The so called mundane tasks filled up most of whatever spare time was there. Even work lost its allure - the same old stuff! I couldn’t imagine doing the same old stuff for years …

“Faithfulness in the performance of small duties gives us strength to adhere to difficult determinations that life will someday force us to make.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda

Some nine months into my first job I was full of self-pity for myself and full of appreciation and admiration for my parents. I counted the number of years my father had been a professor and my mom has been a homemaker. What motivated them to go about their daily tasks day after day, year after year? Did they have a secret they could share?

We were five siblings and we were not easy to please. There were times when we would create a ruckus or complain about the food. I remember my mom throwing up her hands in exasperation and threatening to leave for the Himalayas for good if we didn’t behave ourselves. It worked while we were young, we would immediately shut up, afraid she would carry out her threat and leave us at the mercy of dad who hardly knew how to cook! Other than that, I don’t recollect her ever grumbling or complaining.

 I never heard my dad complain about his work either. He loved to teach and he seemed to enjoy it! Teach the same subject for years together in the same school, in the same classrooms? To me it seemed unimaginable and boring…

So, the next time I met them for the holidays, I asked them the million dollar question - what kept them going? - and all I received was an all knowing smile.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

They say years bring wisdom. I don’t know if I have become wiser but I know that my outlook towards “mundane” tasks has changed over time. More so in the last couple of years.

“Perhaps my only secret is that I always bear in mind what my father said: “Do the smallest things in daily routine with enthusiasm and sincerity.” ~Nerrisa Ng                

Earlier I would be in a hurry to get things done esp. the mundane tasks. Multi-tasking and speed were the buzz words when I was at school and in the corporate world. Tasks had to be checked off the task list before I could get myself to relax or take time for myself.

Now, it’s all different. It’s as if I am unlearning all that I have learned and mastered in the past. Now I look for and find a spiritual significance behind every small task. It’s all about being present and in the moment and enjoying life and the beauty of nature. It’s about feeling the Divine/the Creator in myself, in everything and everyone around me. It’s all about experiencing and expressing the beauty and the great drama of life.

It’s about finding the rainbows in soap bubbles while doing the dishes, tapping into the creative brain while ironing the clothes, letting the mind calm and relax while vacuuming the house, chopping the vegetables with gratitude to nature, cooking the meals with love, rolling every phulka (Indian flat bread or roti) perfectly so that it puffs magnificently every time (this is my latest obsession!), smelling the freshness of mint while brushing the teeth, enjoying the smell of fresh linen while laundering, admiring the beauty of nature (it’s time for fall colors here) while driving, …

Who said you have to take time to relax? to meditate? Every moment in life is an opportunity for meditation, to relax, to enjoy … move beyond the mundane and your whole life can be one long meditative “yogic” experience, communion with the Divine!

Because ultimately, “mundane” is just a word and you can change its meaning … or replace it with a new word!

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