Welcome to the nineteenth episode of The Laundry Basket Liturgy, a devotional companion for Christian mothers longing to embody shalom in the midst of their real, ordinary, everyday calling.
We continue the second season of the podcast, The Quotidian Mysteries — inspired by the reflections of Kathleen Norris and centered on living into the sacredness hidden within ordinary life.
In this episode, we explore the recovery of wonder.
Together, we reflect on the psalmist’s prayer, “Open my eyes,” and consider how motherhood can gradually train us to become practical rather than perceptive, efficient rather than attentive. While children naturally marvel at the world around them, many mothers quietly lose their capacity for wonder beneath the weight of responsibility.
Yet God’s creation continues to proclaim His goodness.
Wonder is not reserved for extraordinary moments. It is awakened when we learn to see ordinary life with fresh eyes.
This episode is an invitation to slow down, recover childlike attentiveness, and rediscover the beauty, mystery, and grace hidden within the everyday.
In this episode, we explore:
— Psalm 119:18 and the prayer, "Open my eyes"
— why mothers often lose their sense of wonder
— the invitation to recover childlike attentiveness
— Kathleen Norris' vision of "the mystics of the quotidian"
— how God's creation continually points us back to its Creator
— why wonder naturally leads to gratitude and worship
Embodied Practice:
Choose one ordinary thing near you.
A cup.
A flower.
A loaf of bread.
A child’s hand.
A beam of sunlight.
Spend one full minute simply observing it.
Not analyzing. Not evaluating. Not rushing.
Simply receive it as though you’ve never seen it before.
Then quietly ask:
“Lord, what beauty have I overlooked?”
Domestic Liturgy for Today:
As you move through your day—
cooking, cleaning, driving, walking, working, waiting—
whisper:
“Open my eyes.”
Not because wonder is absent. But because it is already there, simply waiting to be discovered.
Featured Quotes from this Episode
“...We might best confront the mystery of our daily lives by doing as Jesus suggests, and look to small children, who have a wondrous capacity for living in the present moment.”
— Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries
“The true mystics of the quotidian are not those who contemplate holiness in isolation... but those who manage to find God in a life filled with noise, the demands of other people and relentless daily duties that consume the self.”
— Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries
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