Pondering the Holy in Everyday Stuff

I've been reading this really great book called "Judaism for Everyone" by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and it's been making me think a lot about how I express spirituality in my own life, as well as how seriously I take my own religion. I love the way Rabbi Boteach interprets biblical scriptures, and how he says that suffering isn't something we are obliged or even expected by God to take without fighting. In fact, "Israel" means "to wrestle with God" and God expects us to rail against suffering when we see it. There was no suffering in the garden of Eden, so therefore suffering must be something that we should not see in a utopian world, which is what we are supposed to experience when the messianic era arrives. Conclusively, we should all alleviate suffering where and when we are able to do so, since that's a beautiful thing in God's eyes and maybe something that will hasten the arrival of the one who is supposed to help the world to usher in an era of peace and harmony (in Judaism, the Messiah is believed to be a human being like any one of us, rather than an angel or some sort of God figure). This book has been causing me to reflect a lot on how I live my life, and on how by participating in the Jewish rituals of everyday life, I can bring myself into a more spiritually grounded place. By practicing kosher eating, for example, I enable myself to experience the spiritual in the everyday act of nourishment. As well, I am performing a mitzvah says, "See, God? We love and care about you. I'm doing something to bring myself closer to you. Please notice this and look favorably on humanity." I do this as part of a community of people who are also doing this, which brings me not only closer to God, but also closer to the Jewish community as a whole and to the Jewish community of the past, including my relatives who survived the Holocaust. This is not to say that I have become a master at kashrut. I have not. Mostly, I've been practicing some of the dietary restrictions of kashrut when cooking in my own home, by not mixing dairy with meat and that sort of thing. It's a very small step but big changes start with small steps and big changes made all at once can often be so daunting and overwhelming as to cause the changer to give up the challenge when the journey has barely begun. I guess it's like losing weight; people who lose a few pounds at a time tend to keep the weight off for life, while people who shed a large amount of weight quickly tend to gain it back plus extra. Slow and steady work is what brings about lasting, positive change. I suppose that when I stopped chemicalizing myself I began to have a deeper need for spiritual meaning. I've always been curious about God and I've always searched for the spiritual among the activities of everyday life. I never could access the true meaning of it, though. Now, in sobriety, I can finally begin to feel what it's about and to really need it in a true and less selfish way.