Finding the Extraordinary

In the ordinary

An orange light glows on the horizon, sending light to the corners of my little piece of earth. Slow and steady, it brightens and turns the clouds into puffs of the softest pink, stretching and spreading itself so thin that it encompasses the sky. Day dawns. Sadie, the pup, and I watch, mesmerized, then turn the corner as we return home from our morning walk.

As October winds down, a new season begins. November looms ahead with its dreary chill and bare bones landscape. A time to let the once glorious leaves turn brown and black, soft and wet under my feet. A time to clean, organize and go inward. A time to close one book and open another. 

In our household, this week also marks recognition of a life well lived. My partner, Jim, just finished building guitar number 200. He’s not one to shout it from the rooftops and I like that about him. It has made me reflect on life and work. How we go about living.

Many of us, day in and day out, do the work we’ve chosen. Often, it helps to make the world go round. Whether making a cup of coffee, giving someone a flu shot, bagging groceries, writing and editing an article, teaching a class, changing the oil in a car. Some days, we do it from muscle memory, knowing all the gestures by heart, plugging along, getting it done, while our minds process the goings on of our worlds. And usually no one else notices what we’re doing. But it doesn’t stop us from plugging away.

Then, there are those days, when we watch ourselves work, thriving on our skills, amazed at what we can do, what we are capable of. At least, that’s how I experience it. It’s like a lightbulb goes on, illuminating our work. Suddenly, we see it in a different light, as though we are on the outside looking in. And we realize how much we’ve done, how far we’ve gotten, how good we’ve become at it. It’s like that slow, steady sunrise, glowing, spreading color across the sky. 

Then, life events pop up and we return to our daily work. Sometimes, it becomes our foundation, what keeps us centered in a whirlwind world. The slow, steady grind carries us through the hard times.

As November arrives, I want to be stopped by those morning sunrises, those moments of celebration, those illuminating skies. In the midst of the ordinary, the extraordinary lies, just waiting to be noticed. May you see it!