Ordinary can be awesome

Most of life is unremarkable if we are lucky. No one really expects to get notice of a huge inheiritance from an uncle we barely knew. No one really expects to be one of the six people in the world to find a golden ticket in their Wonka bar. But we all have our share of really terrible days; days of unexpected layoffs, bad medical test results, horrible fights with someone we love, and the like. We all hope that those days are few. So, with very few extraordinarily great days expected and several (but not many) really bad days anticipated, the vast majority of days are destined to be mundane. It is in those days that life is lived. It is what we do with those days that determines if we will leave anything of significance behind because of the life we lived.

Last night we had some folks over for dinner, one of whom was my grandson, Tyler. In the waning moments of the evening, he and I sat out on the front porch as the sun was going down. We weren't playing any sort of raucous game, we were just sitting. Since he is not yet 2 years old, we weren't having a deep conversation. (He does have an extraordinary vocabulary, but that is for another post.) But there was a second that I looked at him and he looked back at me and smiled. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but I sensed how valuable those simple, ordinary moments are. There will be opportunities for over the top fun at parties and amusement parks, but I have learned to really appreciate ordinary days. Ordinary can be awesome.