Weekly Gratitude – The Extraordinary Miracle of the Ordinary

The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.

Before I changed the design of my blog, I used to have a tag line that read “Extraordinary Moments from an Ordinary Life.” I’ve had my blog for over ten years and, in that time, I’ve had many different tag lines but none of them rang as true to me as this one.

Life is so extraordinary. Especially the simple, ordinary day.

Last week, I was sitting at my kitchen table, feeding my nine-month-old some cereal and fruit while I helped my older one practice his lowercase letters and kept an eye on my email. And for a split second, I took a moment to look at my life from an outsider’s perspective and I felt a huge rush of gratitude. There was nothing extraordinary about a baby eating some solid food and a five-year-old practicing letters. Yet, everything about it seemed extraordinary to me. Did I really have two amazing boys who made my heart sing? This wonderful laptop to check my mails on and the great kitchen to prepare meals in? (I don’t even cook, imagine if I did.) I felt thankful for the warm house. (It was raining outside and my home last year was not insulated at all so I would be freezing if I were still there.) I felt thankful to be able to live such an ordinary life. To get to get up, feed my kids, help my kids, do my work, all in the comfort of my home. To have a kind, loving husband. To have a job. To have arms, legs, and a healthy body.

I know that some of these things might seem inane to some of you. I complain about many of these a lot of the time. There are days when I am tired and I don’t want to have to feed my son one more meal or I want my older one to be quiet so I can think. Days where I wish I wouldn’t have to respond to one more work email. Some days I am so tired, I wish I could sleep all day. And don’t even get me started on my body and what’s happened to it after having had two kids. (I don’t mind the stretch marks, but I would love to lose the weight.)

And yet, I love my life. There are so many good things about it. There are so many miracles that happen everyday. The tiny hug from my boy or even just a giggle. The baby’s soft hands on my face. Some small accomplishment at work. A hug from my husband’s strong, loving arms. These are miracles to me. Miracles of the ordinary life. The lives we get to live. How similar they are and yet how uniquely different.

I thought this would be a good week to celebrate the ordinariness of our lives. The fact that we get to have ordinary lives. The little extraordinary moments that fill each of our days. I hope you’ll take some time with me to observe, cherish, and be grateful for the extraordinary miracle of the ordinary.

EDITED TO ADD: As it always seems to happen, I found this incredible video in Jena’s blog today and I had to come share since it fits so well with my topic. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.