Oak Openings’ yellow trail is a study in opposites. Hard ground gives way to sandy soil. Sweet smells turn to brackish odors. Shadows part in a shaft of sunshine raining down like wheat from a hopper. A wooded park is a place to contemplate opposites, those paradoxes that are integral to our Christian faith. Emptiness leads to fullness. Absence leads to presence. Death leads to life. Earth leads to heaven.

Our day is filled with opposite ends of the spectrum; for example, Kathleen Norris writes of liturgy and laundry, both routines that can lead to worship. Maybe for you it’s taking children to soccer practice. Or sorting socks and organizing agendas for an important meeting. Or taking out the trash and bringing in a friend who’s grieving.

Today bless God for the opposites in your life, and see each circumstance as an opportunity to find Christ in the midst of daily occupations. St. Therese of Lisieux herself said that Christ was most abundantly present not in prayer but in the midst of the ordinary daily occupations.