“We consider our plans for the day.” (Page 86, Big Book)
When I wrote this, I had considered my plans for the day. To consider one’s plans, one must already have plans, and I did indeed have plans, which were perfectly ordinary: work, answering the phone, housework, exercise, eating meals. Nothing unusual or highfalutin. In considering the plans, I was ‘inspired’ to add two items to the list:
- Stew plums
- Get vegetables
Nothing unusual or highfalutin about those.
That was it. Nothing more.
One error is to think that, to have a relationship with God, one is supposed to have ontological or existential realisations, to peel back the surface of the material word, to have psychedelic experiences, to have abstract awareness, in other words that a ‘spiritual experience’ entails something special, colourful, interesting, and wordy.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
A spiritual life is one in which I’m rightly related to God and others, and in which I do what is in front of me to do, which, on the day in question, involved stewing plums and getting vegetables.