Finding Splendor in the Daily Grind

I live within a mile of two windmills. Once these and the other windmills that dot my local area were vital to a thriving farming economy. Now, they are used as historic landmarks and visitor centers.

This area was colonized and founded for religious freedom in the mid sixteen hundreds. The main occupation was farming, a job that was labor intensive. The mill owner was a part of the local economy and his life was also bound to the land and daily routine. Life and just survival was difficult, even in this fertile area. Windmills were used to grind corn and grain until the twentieth century when they were replaced by modern machinery that runs on electricity. As their name implied windmills are wind powered. The potential for harnessing wind energy here is superior, hampered basically by political factions and interests. While the former windmills are considered beautiful, the new sleek models that could dot shorelines and bays have opponents who seek to preserve the landscape by sticking with fossil fuels that cause global warming. The Hebrew word for wind is ruach, which also means the breath of God. Back in the first chapter of Genesis the Lord forms Adam from the earth. When the Lord blows His divine breath into Adam comes alive.

Sag Harbor Windmill 2004 Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series Strokes: Genesis 1-2:7. Deut .6:4 and "framed" by Psalm 30 30 x 24 inches Acrylic on canvas

For Cervantes's Don Quixote, windmills were the enemy to defeat in joust. The metaphor is at once humorous and compelling as the arms of the windmill can seem like the arms of a man in a fight. In Cervantes's times windmills were the towering landmarks that dotted the landscape, rooted in place, and daily doing the same task, without thinking, without imagination or the challenge of an impossible dream.

Ironically, today many people are inspired and delighted by the local windmills, which remind us of what we imagine was a simpler and less harried time. They seem so peaceful and quiet now, but real working mills are actually noisy! As usual, it is a matter of our perspective, how we look at the world.

Our daily tasks are often not intrinsically exiting or uplifting. They are as common for most of us as breathing out and breathing in. However, for many of us, if a task seems as if “anyone” can do it, it is insignificant. Anyone can pray. Prayer is as communicating with God. Prayers can and have ranged from a simple, but heartfelt cry of, ”Help!” to a memorized passage in an unknown language (such as Hebrew or Latin), to simply being still and waiting for “that still small voice”.

Prayer is the one activity that anyone can do at anytime. It is possible that even catatonics or people in comas can actually still pray from the information that those who have recovered tell us. We know that even newborns are communicating with those around them and there is no evidence to contradict that some are also relating to God.

Thanks to some of the marvels of modern medicine, there are times when a person may not be breathing, taking in nourishment, excreting wastes or have a heart or kidneys that are functioning on their own. Acts that we take for granted or seem mundane to us when we are in good health can become challenging and then we yearn for the old routine. At life threatening times, we know for sure that people pray! Anyone can do it, but how important is prayer?

Scientific studies have proved that when people who know the patient pray for him, the patient's outcome and recovery is significantly improved. I have a dear friend, a feisty senior citizen with a bit of a walking problem, who usually prays for a close by parking space whenever we go out to the movies. Even in the summer, when the main streets in the Hamptons are crowded, if she remembered to pray we always find a space near the theater!

It is our breath, the seemingly mundane task of breathing, which we do so automatically usually, that brings the most essential fuel of oxygen to our bodies. I can and have gone a day without food, liquid or eve sleep, yet how long can I live without breathing?

Speaking is a way of taking ones breath and using it to create sound vibrations under control. So is singing. When the Lord speaks the world into existence, again in Genesis Chapter 1, those words are the breath of God altered into specific and controlled sound vibrations.

Windmills obviously need wind to function. The symbolism from of God's Breath creating humankind's life makes a windmill a strong visual metaphor for me. I have painted several windmills for the Genesis: Sunset- Sunrise series and no doubt will paint more.

The challenge is to be like a windmill, going through the routine, even monotonous task of grinding and grinding, but being fueled and conscious of breath, both mine and the breath of my soul as the Lord breathes life into me (inspiration of the still small voice) that is inspirational.

What changes doing a simple, even repetitive task that seems insignificant to moments of splendor, meaning and inspiration is our attitude and focus on the One who gives us the very strength to accomplish it.

January 24, 2007