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Monday, May 16, 2011

Ordinary Moments

I was 16 years old; hauling my dirty clothes to the laundry room, grumbling about it the whole way. That's when my mom stopped me and said,

"Brian, routine is good. Ordinary is good. Life is made up of ordinary and it's in these ordinary moments that we can experience life at its fullest if we just pay attention."

We live in a society where ordinary is not really seen as a good thing; extraordinary is the goal. If we are not intentional, I believe that it would be very easy to spend all of our days striving for the extraordinary at the expense of missing the ordinary

I spend lots of time focusing on the next thing, often times hoping that it is anything but ordinary. The next meeting. The next meal. The next date night. The next paycheck. The next kid. The next whatever. I still, at times - 18 years later - get annoyed when I have to spend my time cutting the grass, cleaning the garage, repairing a broken chair or prepping a meeting, driving to an appointment or exercising. All very ordinary, mundane, routine events.  Yet, all opportunities to engage in the moment. All opportunities to experience the fullness and richness and beauty of life if I would simply engage and be present in those everyday, ordinary moments. 

Maybe today would be a good day to practice living and loving in the very ordinary moments. Perhaps, we would experience life differently and more fully if we stopped looking ahead to the next thing and simply enjoyed and experienced the current thing. Maybe today we could experience the beauty and richness of life right where we are.

4 comments:

Andrea said...

Well said Brian. I wrote on a similar subject a few weeks ago. I'm on my way out to enjoy today and hope you do the same.

http://nolaschaff310.blogspot.com/2011/04/constant-countdown.html

Anonymous said...

awesome word for today.... Thanks for sharing.

Kimberly Kulp said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pi Man said...

I agree, Brian. I know that so much of my life I was always looking ahead to "the next step." And in some ways I still do. That said, I think this realization is aligned not only with wisdom, but also in the nature of contentment. It's a journey I know I'm on. To live in and appreciate the now is something I'll work on the rest of my life. Thanks. TA