Ordinary Days

My perspective has changed. I don't know if it's because of age, empty nest, or cancer -- or maybe all of the above -- but things are different now. There's just something very extraordinary about ordinary days.


Just now I have my window open and a cool night breeze is blowing in. I can hear the coyotes just starting to run in the woods behind the house, and oddly enough the neighborhood dogs all sit silently as the intruders pass through. I wonder...why are the dogs that normally bark at moon shadows suddenly silent? What's up with that? I wish I knew. It doesn't really matter, now does it? It is what it is, and yet it's one of those ordinary things that I never really paid any attention to before....well before whatever...but now I wonder.


Sunsets are more beautiful than they've ever been. (I'm sure the sunrises are nicer, too, but alas I've become an insomniac and do my best sleeping when I should be getting up.) Rain is fresher. Everything seems greener this spring than ever. Ordinary days.


We've been entertained by a very territorial pair of bluebirds this spring. While busying themselves with nestbuilding in the cute little bluebird house we provided for them, they discovered their reflections in our car side-view mirrors and our car windows, and have wreaked havoc with our automobiles. How two tiny little birds can make such a mess on a car I'll never know. Mind you, we've had bluebirds lo these 20-plus years we've lived here on Mockingbird Hill, yet never have had them declare war with their reflections in our cars and trucks. Maybe it's a revenge thing. Maybe they wanted this land to be called Bluebird Hill. Who knows? Someday I'll post a video that Hero took one afternoon of one of the silly birds doing battle with the Camry. It's a hoot.


We have a few stranger-than-strange critter stories from the Hill -- crazy cardinals, Carolina wrens, fly-days (oh, don't get me started on that one), a black lab who thinks it's her lot in life to retrieve turtles, Charlottes and their webs, oh, and killdeers (we say kildees here in the south) and ....I could go on, but I'll save those for another time. And we have families of squirrels now that the oak trees are producing bumper crops of acorns. I guess there's not much hope for pecans when the trees we planted mature. Oh, well, I love watching the squirrels. I can buy pecans.


Time spent with family and friends is more precious than it's ever been. We don't have to do anything "entertaining" -- just hanging out is enough. Ordinary stuff.


Who knew that just sitting out on the patio with Hero, even when we don't have much to say, could be so, well, extraordinary?


I never realized what a restless and I guess discontented person I was until now. Looking back it seems like I always lived very tentatively. Maybe everybody does to an extent. You know, if I can accomplish this...buy that...overcome this hurdle...whatever...everything will be better. I am now living in the moment, realizing that I don't have to have anything else, do anything else, or be anyone else to be content. God has blessed me with my husband who is really and truly my hero, two wonderful daughters, funny and loving sisters, nieces and nephews galore, each with his or her own unique "thing" I love about them, and better friends than a person could ever ask for. Most of all my loving Heavenly Father has allowed me to be adopted into His family by way of His Son. I am blessed, and life is good.


I hope you, too, will take the time to see the extraordinary in ordinary days.


Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. -- Matthew 6:34 


P.S. While you're taking the time to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, ponder on these lyrics from one of my all-time favorite songs "Cool, An' Green, An' Shady" by John Denver. Or better yet, look it up on YouTube and listen to it.
(Yes, I said John Denver...don't judge me...you have your oldie faves, too!) 


Saturdays, holidays, easy afternoons,
lazy days, sunny days, nothing much to do.
Rainy days are better days for hanging out inside.
Grainy days and city ways make me want to hide
someplace cool and green and shady.

Find yourself a piece of grassy ground, lay down close your eyes.
Find yourself and maybe lose yourself while your free spirit flies.

August skies, and lullabies, promises to keep,
dandelions and twisting vines, clover at your feet.
Memories of aspen leaves trembling on the wind,
honey bees and fantasies, where to start again,
someplace cool and green and shady. Cool and green and shady.
Cool and green and shady. Cool and green and shady.