Oh, Normal Day…

On Wednesday, I shared this quote on Instagram…

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.
Let me not pass you by in the quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
~Mary Jean Irion~

I thought a lot about those words as I lived Wednesday.  And, when I began living Thursday, I found that I was still thinking about them.  I was thinking that it’s all fine and good to treasure a day on a morning when you’re sitting by the fire and sipping tea.  It’s all fine and good when the kids are doing well with this-that-and-the-other, or when the meeting at work is productive, or when your aging loved one is alert and well.  It’s all fine and good to treasure a day when the day is a good one.  It’s a different thing altogether to treasure a day that feels sad or disappointing or disjointed.

Can you see what I mean?

I didn’t have a bad Thursday, but it wasn’t as nice as Wednesday.  It wasn’t as easy.  Thursday found me feeling heavy, lost, uncomfortable.  I kept thinking about Irion’s words though.  Could I treasure a day like I was having?  I gave it my best shot.

What I really wanted to do was take a hot shower and climb into bed; what I really wanted was to be done with the day.  But there were blueberry muffins to help bake; there was lunch to share with my kiddos; there were dishes to wash; there was a floor I had every intention of mopping (but did not).  I wanted that shower and I wanted that bed (with the covers pulled over my head), but there was a day to be lived.  There was a day to treasure.

At midday, I thought about the opportunities I’d had to learn so far that day (patience, vulnerability).  I thought about the opportunities I’d had to love so far that day (my son, my daughter, my husband).  I thought about the opportunities I’d had to bless so far that day (a whispered prayer: thank you, Thursday, for being here and holding me in my messiness).  At midday, I thought about how tomorrow might be easier.  But it might be just as hard.  The truth is, on a Thursday, I don’t know what a Friday will look like, be like, feel like.  At midday, what I had was Thursday, and so I tried to sink into Thursday.

It was uncomfortable. It felt messy, and I felt lost.  But I will tell you that, as I stayed with the discomfort, I felt power in the living.  I felt the gift of living.  I considered how recognizing the difference between a hard day and an easy day necessarily means that I know days of ease.

Oh Normal day, you were hard on my heart.  But I was with you.  I lived you, unconcerned with what transpired yesterday and unburdened with preconceptions of what may manifest tomorrow.  I mucked through you.  I honored the learning, the loving, the blessing.

Because what a blessing, to be sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of peppermint tea at 12:27 on a Thursday afternoon.  What a blessing to learn and love and bless…all by midday.

Sending a little love your way, m

p.s. For those of you living harder days (weeks/months/years), I wish you patience and grace in the mucking…