“Being in bed, having a shower, having breakfast in the kitchen, sitting in my study writing, walking in the garden, cooking and eating our common lunch at my office with my friends, going to the movies, taking my family to eat at a restaurant, going to bed again…. There are surprisingly few of these patterns of events in any one person’s way of life, perhaps no more than a dozen. Look at your own life and you will find the same. It is shocking at first, to see that there are so few patterns of events open to me. Not that I want more of them. But when I see how very few of them there are, I begin to understand what huge effect these few patterns have on my life, on my capacity to live. If these few patterns are good for me, I can live well. If they are bad for me, I can’t.” – Christopher Alexander 

When irritability churns in my stomach, the reason is easy to identify. It is linked to some break in the repetition that sets the cadence of my days. The mood of my day is tied to routine. There is a holiness that exists in the repetition of doing the same ritual day after day. A quiet peace exists in participating in ordinary pursuits.

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