I spent some time wandering in the front yard today photographing the last of the flowering bushes, flowers from my flower beds, and a bit in my container garden. With nice overcast skies I enjoyed this beautiful morning. It was warm but not too warm and the light was gorgeous for photography.
Just an Ordinary Day
I am feeling quite blessed that we are dealing only with mundane ordinary life, even in these extraordinary times. It was a year ago yesterday that I had my hip replaced. If I had known then what a positive difference it would make in my life I could have saved myself a whole lot of worry and fear. But when we face something unknown, like surgery or an illness like COVID-19 it’s hard not to be afraid. (I’m also aware that it’s easy looking back when things turned out well, not so easy when you’re in the middle of it or when things don’t go so well.)
The older I get the more I appreciate the simple pleasures of mundane life and ordinary days. Today I’m celebrating that today is just an ordinary day.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t still need to remind myself that my life is not just what’s handed to me, nor is it my list of obligations, my accomplishments or failures, or what my family is up to, but rather it is what I choose, day in and day out, to make of it all. When I am able simply to be with things as they are, able to accept the day’s challenges without judging, reaching, or wishing for something else, I feel as if I am receiving the privilege, coming a step closer to being myself. It’s when I get lost in the day’s details, or so caught up in worries about what might be, that I miss the beauty of what is.”
― The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother’s Memoir
I loved the shape and texture of these leaves on my sugar snap pea plant
Ordinary days bring blessings and challenges
Along with the beauty of this morning and our ordinary days, we’ve been dealing with plumbing problems this week. Yesterday we had a plumber come out and auger out our kitchen sink drain pipe. It had been draining slower and slower as time went by. In the process of cleaning out under the sink to prepare for the plumber’s visit we discovered that our faucet was leaking. So now there’s another plumbing project in the offing — a new kitchen sink and faucet.
Though one may be tempted to complain about the unexpected problem we found, I am grateful — grateful that we have a home to live in with plumbing that sometimes leaks, grateful that we found the leak before significant damage was done, grateful that we can afford to hire a plumber to come and fix plumbing, grateful that leaky pipes seem to be the most serious problem we are facing today.
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
― Winnie-the-Pooh
What are you grateful for today?
May you walk in beauty.
Gracie looking out at the world through the front door and longing to head out to explore
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