During the last year, I have woken up in my bedroom at home, a hospital bed, a hotel room, a friend’s couch, and a dorm. Regardless of where I wake up, I begin nearly every single day the same way: praying in the shower. With the water pouring on me in a silent room where my mind is free to become fully alive is where I feel the most empowered to give thanks, reflect, seek forgiveness, and ask for guidance.
The few people who I tell this daily habit of mine to don’t exactly understand and I can’t blame them. Last year, I was talking to the priest at my high school about prayer and I told him about my personal approach to daily prayer. He suggested that I reconsider how I pray and try setting aside some time solely devoted to it. Although I could see his logic about how the shower is not the most sacred place to interact with God, I had to disagree. I don’t pray in the shower because I don’t have other free moments in my day. I pray in the shower because it has become a part of my morning routine. In the same ways that I prepare my body for the day by brushing my teeth and trimming my beard, I prepare my mind and spirit for the challenges that lie ahead of me every morning. It’s the same thing every day and even though it’s so simple, days without it just don’t seem right.
Whether it be the good night text that I send my mom every time I climb into bed even when it’s 2 am, the “Thank you” that I always try to remember to end every email with, or the prayers that I say each morning in the shower, I believe in the power and meaning of routine. When I talk about routine, I’m not talking about the endless quirks that Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory has or even the systematic way you mindlessly put your right sock first on every day. I’m talking about the things that we consciously make important enough to ourselves to repeat day in and day out, regardless of circumstance.
Routines are so simple and seem so monotonous, yet, they play such a critical role in my life. Life is so unpredictable that few things in it are constant. What we make constant though are the things that we value and the ones that make differences in our lives.
Routines are part of who we are and demonstrate what we truly value. Few people will understand what you do and even less will have a clue why you do it. Like my priest, they’ll question you and even make sense. What matters are the reasons that we have for doing something every day and the ways that we find our inner sense of comfort, stability, and peace.