Preparing your home for winter provides many opportunities to practice mindfulness. Whether we are chopping wood, paying the person who swept the chimney, or blowing leaves off of the deck we can pause and appreciate everything.

Have you heard the old Zen Koan “Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water?” One interpretation of this koan is that enlightenment can be found in the menial tasks of everyday life. The task becomes a meditation practice if we choose to approach it that way. With this added intentionality we can cultivate a greater sense of fulfillment, joy, and gratitude while we prepare our homes for winter.

Home maintenance tasks, or shall we say mindfulness opportunities, vary from home to home. Some outdoor tasks may include: stocking/ chopping/stacking firewood, cleaning the gutters, sweeping the chimney, fixing any leaks in the roof, and raking/bagging leaves. Inside the home we may add some insulation to windows and doors and have the furnace cleaned and serviced. Make sure to check for and test your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors since the house will be sealed up for the winter. Check online for guidance on the proper placement and quantity of detectors needed in your home.

A few other tasks that come to mind include ensuring any exposed external water lines are insulated, packing up the garden supplies, and stocking up on pet safe salt for the sidewalk and driveway. As a seasoned mountain dweller you likely have your home maintenance items that you do every year. What else can you think of?

Now that we’ve identified what we need to do, let’s talk about our mutual friend - procrastination. What a pain in the butt it can be to HAVE to do something. If you are feeling stuck when it comes to preparing your home for winter, consider the following words from Pema Chödrön, American Buddhist teacher. “Pause Practice,” she explains, is “taking three conscious breaths at any moment when we notice that we are stuck.” This could be used at any time throughout your day whether you’re trying to motivate yourself to do something, trying to find patience with what you are doing, or to facilitate making a different decision outside of your normal habitual behaviors.

Perhaps, this refreshing approach to relating to our homes can also aid in uplifting us from emotional slumps that sometimes arise this time of year. Marie Kondo, Japanese professional organizer believes “..that when we consciously cherish something precious, we deepen our relationship with it. This, in turn, deepens our bonds with other things in our lives, bringing out the best in them and in ourselves.”

It seems as though taking a few deep breaths and approaching a seasonal chore with mindfulness could lead to a much deeper connection to our home, ourselves, the people, and things around us! It is as though the chore is simply a means to uncover something deeper.

Emma Quarterman can be reached at 303-506-5218 or by email at emma@livewestrealty.com. Checkout her website at emmaskycolorado.com/.