Ordinary Delights

Do ordinary things with extraordinary love. _Mother Teresa

Recently when making my journal entry about the previous day I described it this way: “If I had to describe this day with one word it would be: Ordinary.”

And then I wrote: “And I like ordinary, for I enjoy my life, what I am doing and who I am doing it with.”

It occurred to me that morning that perhaps a good definition of success is truly enjoying the ordinariness of your life.

The people who are trying to sell us stuff don’t want us to be satisfied with the ordinary. Matter of fact, they want us to be dissatisfied with the ordinary.

Why? Because they want us longing (and paying) for something else. They tell us that ordinary won’t do. We’ve got to go to that special place, have that once-in-a-lifetime experience, compile bucket lists, go there, do that, experience that thrill and climb that hill.

With a family that is spread out all over the world, I know about living for those special and rare moments when we can all be together. But my most precious memories and moments were the ordinary days. I’d take a lifetime of ordinary days over a few hundred extraordinary days.

Christmas dinner is great. But don’t fly by those ordinary weeknight meals.

Taking your child(ren) to the big game is a big deal, but playing catch with them in the backyard is a bigger deal.

Vacation memories are special, but they don’t compare to the privilege of tucking your children in on a weeknight and hearing them say their prayers, and then later, pulling the cover up to your own chin with the peace of knowing your family is all under the same roof–safe and sound– for another night.

Ordinary.

What a delightful word.

What a delightful life.

The ONE THING for today: Don’t miss the ordinary delights.