Linking up today with Lisa-Jo and the others at Five Minute Friday. Today's word prompt is ordinary.
The little boy waiting for the bus taught me. He stood there patiently on the corner as I drove through tears to the edge of my grandparents' development. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful March morning, the promise of spring in the air. For that little boy, it seemed to be an ordinary day. Maybe he had a math test. Maybe he was wondering what was going to be served for lunch. Just one more day until school was out for the weekend.
Seeing that little boy took my breath away. It was the morning of my grandmother's funeral and when I caught sight of him, I realized that while my family would be mourning the loss and celebrating the life of one very precious lady, for the rest of the world it was just an ordinary day. The dichotomy was striking.
Of course, I always knew that the world didn't stop for everyone when it stopped for one or a few. But this was the first time my pain was so searing that I couldn't step beyond the small circle of my world to realize that most everyone else was going about their ordinary days while I was trying to right my upside-down world.
That lesson has stayed with me through the years. While I go about my own business as usual, others are hurting, aching, suffering ... and at the other end of the spectrum, celebrating, rejoicing, daring to take a chance. An ordinary day for me may be an extraordinary day for my neighbor, my friend, the driver who cut me off, the server who was impatient.
I don't always get it right. There are plenty of days when I'm so consumed with my ordinary that I don't take a breath and think of the journey someone else is on. But my life is better when I do.
I don't know where that little boy is today, 19 years after I saw him on that corner as I was driving to the store in search of black pantyhose. I don't know if today was just another ordinary day for him or if something wonderfully extraordinary rocked his world. I do know that he shifted my world one morning and my life is a little less ordinary because of it.
Beautiful. Keeping that perspective is important, for sure, but so difficult to maintain. Pulling back to see another's day is painful in the midst of the struggle of my own can't-be-worse day. I want everyone to feel it with me. And yet, how often do I see and feel the hi's and low's of another. The grief. The joy. It comes and goes. May we be ever mindful of those around us and have a less than ordinary perspective.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Cheryl. You're right, it is hard to maintain. I'm grateful for opportunities to try again (and again ... and again).
DeleteGreat post. So many things stand out and are a great reminder of just how ordinary works.
ReplyDelete"While I go about my own business as usual, others are hurting, aching, suffering ... and at the other end of the spectrum, celebrating, rejoicing, daring to take a chance." LOVE
You have encouraged me today. Debra Bacon | Jean's Blog http://www.jeansblogs.com
Thanks for stopping by, Debra! Wishing you an extraordinary day of grace today.
DeleteThis is such a great piece...amazing how something so small can shift your entire perspective, even when you are in the middle of such a difficult, painful place. I will remember this one for a long time! Thanks for sharing it with us. (I'm from five-minute Friday.)
ReplyDeleteAbbey, Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate the encouraging feedback and your thoughts!
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