September is here with its seemingly inexhaustible to-do lists. 

After the miasma of August it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the volume of day-to-day tasks.

But what if I asked you to treasure them?

Here’s how I got into this mindset:

Mid-July I was walking up the stairs with (yet another) pile of laundry, having pushed aside tumbleweeds of dog hair. 

In that moment I thought, 

“I have to believe a day will come when I will miss this.”

I thought that day was far away.

Then, the end of July, we lost Tiger—which took care of the tumbleweeds and—I’m so sad to write—in August I lost my beloved Seymour, cutting down significantly on laundry. 

(When dogs are 17 they have health issues, and those health issues mean they have laundry…) 

These days my house is quite clean… and I don’t dig it.

So while it may be hard to access joy as you head to the grocery store/throw in another load of laundry laundry/plug in the vacuum yet again, I ask you to do so.

Because—if you listen closely—there is a hum of happiness underneath the humdrum.

For more on the value of the seemingly mundane, take a look at “Work is Worship”