What if living fully in the present meant that even the most mundane events could become sacred? Dani Shapiro[1] , author of the best-selling book Devotion, [2] says that by being constantly aware, we can find the divine in the ordinary.


"How do you begin to decipher the sacred in the ordinary, because that's really what you ended up doing in this book," Oprah says to Shapiro in the above clip from "Super Soul Sunday."[3]


"The idea that I'm driving in a car with my son in the back seat and it's a beautiful fall day and the leaves are turning, and it's just the two of us in the car and we're talking -- that can be a sacred moment," Shaprio says.


"Or," she continues, "he can be playing on the phone and I can be zoned out and thinking about 20 things that I need to do or didn't do. And then the moment is lost."


"So when you're being with someone, really be with someone," Oprah says.


"Right, and recognize the possibility of the divine in any given moment," Shapiro says. "It's like a lens through which to see the world. It's so easy to not do that and yet it's almost like flipping a switch. And in doing it, the feeling of this place, the energy of this place feels sacred."


She says a quote from the book The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel explains this in a poignant way. "Abraham Joshua Heschel, who I really fell in love with during the time that I was writing Devotion, he said, 'The task of life is to face sacred moments,'" Shapiro quotes. "I just thought that was so beautiful, because it requires a kind of courage."



It does take courage, Oprah agrees. "To step into it," she says.


"To not shut down," Shapiro adds. "But to have that consciousness. This moment."


Shapiro says she realized this while packing her son's lunch one the morning. "There was a lot going on, and crankiness, and dogs, and ... the words that came into my mind were, 'You're going to miss this someday,'" she says. "So how about not missing it while it's happening?"


"Super Soul Sunday"[4] airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.



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