Extraordinary Ordinary Life

Today was a regular ordinary day in my regular ordinary sort of life. There’s no earth-shattering news to share, and nothing notably remarkable happened. But, it’s another day of life. My life. And, your life. So, maybe that’s what makes it feel so extraordinary. Because, nothing is truly ordinary when living is involved!

It happened to be a perfectly beautiful sunny spring day outside. Everything is fresh and new here. There’s new green grass, new leaves and flowers budding on the trees, new birds singing and new butterflies floating on the breeze.

Not that I actually was getting to enjoy any it from my windowless, soulless basement office. But, I still knew it was happening out there because [thankfully] I took a short walk during my lunch break. 🙂

Someone, somewhere – right this minute – is leaving this life behind. They are experiencing their welcome home party in the great beyond. Likewise, someone somewhere – right this minute – is being welcomed into their very first Earth-day.

For some reason, thinking about the steady comings and goings of life – whether it’s the seasons, or mortality, reassures me that there is a divine Plan to all of this day-to-day. Sometimes, The Plan is to experience something truly remarkable, monumental, traumatic, soul stirring, or life altering like Jimmy Kimmel recently shared.

And sometimes, The Plan is just to have an uneventful, unremarkable, ordinary kind of day.

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”
– Psalms 118:24.

A day like today.

And a day like yesterday. When I got home from work the sun was still shining, so I hurried and put on my running shoes, and walked out the front door. Then I started walking on the trail next to my house. It’s amazing how such a simple thing like walking felt like such a big deal after being cooped up in bed for so many days on end being miserably sick, unable to move more than a shuffle between my bed and the bathroom…

And so, despite the swarms of tiny newly hatched insects that kept trying to fly into my mouth [extra protein?], it was a joyful experience just being outside, doing something so seemingly ordinary as walking, and breathing in Earth. I was loving it so much I just kept walking, and walking…until I found myself completing a four mile loop  – and no coughing!

These are the building block kind of days. The bread and butter days. The kind of days you go through the motions, trying to check off your to-do list, run your errands, clock in and out of work, or make plans for that exceptional, extraordinary day in your future. But meanwhile, these regular day-in-the-life kind of days are perfectly good days for having a very good day.

I hope you are enjoying one of those marvelously unremarkable, yet surprisingly hopeful kind of regular, ordinary days. And, I hope you discover that it’s a good day. ☺

Love, MoSop

Look at the world: Everything all around us
Look at the world: and marvel everyday
Look at the world: So many joys and wonders
So many miracles along our way

Praise to thee O lord for all creation
give us thankful hearts that we may see
all the gifts we share and every blessing
all things come of thee

Look at the earth: Bringing forth fruit and flower
Look at the sky: The sunshine and the rain
Look at the hills, look at the trees and mountains,
Valley and flowing river field and plain.

Praise to thee O lord for all creation
give us thankful hearts that we may see
all the gifts we share and every blessing
all things come of thee

Think of the spring, Think of the warmth of summer
Bringing the harvest before the winters cold
Everything grows, everything has a season
Til’ it is gathered to the fathers fold.

Praise to thee O lord for all creation
give us thankful hearts that we may see
all the gifts we share and every blessing
all things come of thee

Every good gift, all that we need and cherish
Comes from the lord in token of his love
We are his hands, stewards of all his bounty
His is the earth and his the heavens above

Praise to thee, O lord for all creation.
Give us thankful hearts that we may see
All the gifts we share, and every blessing,
All things come of thee
All things come of thee

John Rutter – Look At The World