The Gift of an Ordinary Day

My Mom had a book lying around the house a few years back called The Gift of an Ordinary Day. I couldn’t have read more than the back cover, but that title has always stuck with me. I had it on my mind yesterday as I went through my day, checking little things off my to-do list, sort of going through the motions yet present at the same time.

{A leisure morning of reading and work. Sizzling eggs and bacon; some cool coffee to wash it down. A bike ride. Catching up with my roommate while we made lunch side by side. Pedaling up the hill to work. Cruising back down for an evening to myself. A comforting dinner. An ordinary day. }

I was racking my brain for a post topic all day. Nothing I ate was noteworthy. I didn’t hike. No crafts or anything inspiring to take pictures of. I was stumped, and a little frustrated with myself. It’s like it hit me with a ton of bricks… my life is average.

That’s also when that book title popped into my head. And ideas began swirling. It’s funny how these creative moments are born. How they manifest out of nowhere or a seemingly insignificant moment of your past; a title of a book you never read.

A friend also recently told me a realization she had a while back; a good portion of life is pretty average. She said that once she came to accept this reality, everything sort of felt right.

The leisure mornings with warm coffee and a book suddenly became something to look forward to instead of a time thought as wasted. That comfort meal that’s been made a million times was no longer a food rut but rather a meal that held memories of home and family deep in its cheesy goodness.

My day-to-day life is pretty average. I like my coffee a certain way, my eggs not too runny, the same bike route, and catching up with my roommate about ordinary stuff.

Of course taking risks makes me feel alive. But I think you can take risks and live a simple, ordinary life at the same time. Its about finding meaning in those simple moments and piecing them together until they mean something way bigger.  The light that pours through my bedroom at 7pm and the infectious laughs of my friends radiating down the street is sometimes all I need as a reminder that an ordinary day is a gift. 

Not everyday is something to write blog about, and that’s alright with me.

You see, when I have children and need to be in ten places at once, I know I’ll look back on these moments and be thankful I was present. That I appreciated the slow days and the little things. And hopefully I’ll be digging some meaning out of those countless loads of laundry and tenth casserole dinner I’ll be making that month. It might be buried deep in that cheesy goodness, but I know it’ll be there.

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What’s something in your daily routine that you find meaning in? Are you inspired by small things in your everyday life?