Saturday 7 September 2013

Week 36 Update: The Extraordinary in The Ordinary.

I spent the past week away with my family at the snow. Beautiful Mount Hotham, the surprisingly warm sun shining, the white snow glistening (and eventually melting ...); a break from my ordinary every day.

So I set out to take in the moments that made up my days while separated from my 'normal' existence. Sometimes this was easy. A breathtaking view of the sun rising over the snow-capped mountains; the vision of my son and his cousins playing joyfully in their snow-suits; the sensation of feet sinking in slushy snow. At other times, I lost the extraordinary and found myself deeply entrenched in the ordinary. The same things still had to happen - my son had to be fed, played with, coaxed down for naps. Food had to be cooked, dishes had to be washed, toys had to be picked up. In these moments I found myself missing the moment. Instead, my mind would often trail off into daydreaming or I would let myself swim about in the fogginess of fatigue that seemed to buckle my knees while we were away.

Still, the moments that were extraordinary really were just that. The trick now, I suppose, is to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. In those run-of-the-mill moments, there's always something to see. We just have to remember to see it. In those moments when my son cries out in protest at his desperately-needed nap, what can I see? What about as I wash my 1500th dish for the week? What then?

There's always, always something to see. The extraordinary exists in the ordinary.



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