Miracle Minded Melissa 

Have you ever thought about practicing mindfulness, or positivity, while performing generally unpleasant, boring, dreadful tasks?

This would be called “Practicing the Presence,” of God. (God/Spirit/Oneness – whichever name you call your Higher Power – is the Divine Presence of the ever-expanding Universe.)

About eight years ago I had an “ah-ha” moment about doing my chores and how I just didn’t like doing them; they were boring, and I wanted to not be doing them.

I was putting resisting energy toward doing the chore. I had been this way since I was a child. However, with the influence of Mile Hi Church classes and workshops, and me taking the action steps to change my world (by what I am learning at MHC), one day I snapped out of it and asked myself “why must it feel this way every time I…. (fill in the blank) - pick up the dog sh*t, put the dishes away, exercise, or…?”

I began to change the thoughts around those chores, and they quit being chores and I dreaded doing them less and less, until I dread them no more.

My testimony how Practicing the Presence works is… 

Practicing the Presence while picking up the dog shit in the backyard.

(I have (3) 75lb Labradors – LOTS of shit!)

At that moment I realized that chores don’t have to be a “bore”, I began to make Thursday mornings my ritual of picking up the dog shit, before the trash truck came for the week.

Excuse the word, it just really pertains to my personal lesson.

My ritual was this. For every shit I was picking up, I blessed the shit in my life. I gracefully scoop the shit in the scooper and bless it while I put it in the bag.

It is a walking meditation too, because I need to focus not to step on any shit, while finding the next pile of shit to bless. I need to make sure not to step on any residue-shit too!

I cannot believe how fast I can get that shit picked up!

When I was a kid, all the way to an adult, I resisted picking up dog shit. It felt like 1,937,378,830 hours, picking the shit up when I had the feeling of resistance and dread. I’d be in my head about how much I “hated” picking up shit.

Since I have grown up, I accept and bless the shit (literally and figuratively) in my life, when the shit shows up, I am able to just “bag it”, “bless it” and “go about my way.”

Update: I’ve also learned that picking up shit has its seasons too. I prefer picking up frozen shit, but it must be on the grass. I can pick it up without leaving any skid marks in the grass, like warm, summer shit.

Frozen shit on snow is a no-go. I need an excavator to extract the shit from the frozen tundra in my back yard. It’s like little shit mines back there during the winter.

So, I thought to myself, what shit in my life can I freeze and pick up without leaving any residue?

I began to meditate - with the shit scooper still in my hand - on the shit in my life that can be frozen and given to God to dispose of it.

Practicing the Presence while picking up the dog shit has really made a difference in my weekly chore. I gladly pick up the shit now.

How can you improve your life greater by Practicing the Presence of God?