As much fun as it is to travel and explore with my husband, I love the routine-ness of our days at home. Cooking, conversation, reading, watching football, doing laundry, writing, sipping tea, and knitting with snow falling and fireplace burning. To name a few.
Simple, routine, mundane, pleasurable tasks and events. Which are significant. Because for a handful of years, I didn’t have a full kitchen or anyone special to cook for.
I didn’t have a washer and dryer in my home.
I didn’t have everyday conversation with a life partner—brainstorming and planning together, running my brilliant ideas past him, benefitting from his insight and wisdom.
There’s this human quality that applies to most people (and by most people, I mean me): All too often I don’t appreciate something of value until it’s gone.
I love how author Shauna Niequist said this:
Each one of our lives is shot through, threaded in and out with God’s provision, his grace, his protection, but on the average day, we notice it about as much as we really notice gravity.
The benefit of losing so much is this: it seems that now I’m more in tune with all the goodness around me. But why did it have to take that dry and barren season for my vision to come into clearer focus?
Shauna Niequist goes on to say:
Just because I have forgotten how to see doesn’t mean it isn’t there. [God’s] goodness is there. His promises have been kept. All I need to do is see.
I discovered a thing that helps sharpen my focus. And that thing is speaking and writing gratitude, thanking God for this day, for the delightful ordinary things contained within this day.
Apricot & Fig candle burning. Taste of homemade clam chowder. Tiny white lights still lighting up the place during this New Year’s week. Snow falling outside the large windows. Text conversations with grandkids. Music.
David, the shepherd boy who would become a king, gives us instructions for the average, common, mundane days:
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24
This thought from Anthony Doerr’s book, Four Seasons in Rome, caught my attention. And I actually tried to picture this scenario:
Imagine if we only got to see a cumulonimbus cloud or Cassiopeia or a snowfall once a century: there’d be pandemonium in the streets. People would lie by the thousands in the fields on their backs.
Father in heaven, open our eyes to see the wonders in your creation and the delight of a routine day. Open our eyes to catch a glimpse of how loved we are.
Sharon Brorson
Happy New Year Marlys and Dan. Thank you for the great reminder in your article. I have checked out the night sky thru a certain window in our house every night since October. I am in awe of how clear and big the planets and stars appear. I even spotted Orion’s belt “on it’s side” for a few weeks. I needed to do a bit of research after seeing that for a scientific explanation. And I certainly do not take for granted our washer and dryer in the house. (for 16 yrs in an apartment I had to walk outside and lug the basket and soap to the building laundry room) You are so wise and creative to write about “the everyday life”. Thank you and love from me.
Marlys Lawry
I love your nightly star-gazing habit, Sharon!
Pat
Marlys,
Beautifully written. I needed this today as I’m try to encourage a former co-worker that lives in assisted living. She had a stroke at 75, can walk & moves her arms really well, but it affected her speech. She has zero family here and refuses to move near a nephew in Sacramento.
I see her declining, I share daily devotions and am trying to get her to play bingo and attend their exercise class.
I am going to share your prayer with her.
Happy New year to you & Dan.
Pat
Marlys Lawry
Pat, you are so kind to be such a close part of your friend’s life during this challenging season without family nearby. Blessings!
Peter Howe B.E.M.
Thanks Marlys, you’ve hit the spot, for me & many, I’m sure… foe every day moments can be the most special & meaningful…& sharing can be even more special, for God was paying attention to detail… were we?. Here’s a sharing…I’d been busy during a summers day & I felt I had to stop what I was doing & take a break. I made a glass of lemon tea, took it out into the garden, the sun had a pleasant heat so I decided to take my T shirt off. As I took the T shirt off, I felt the heat of the sun immediately, that heat seemed to reach right inside my chest/body & in that moment of wonderment, I was totally emotionally overcome… I couldn’t control the flow of tears… all I could think was that I had to let it all out. It was a great peaceful release, I can’t recall ever happening before… I was pleased, in a way, that there was no one else around… who might have chosen to ask,’what’s the matter’!!!. I can recall, having similar emotions.. riding up McKenzie Pass…. The humidity & heat, created warm thermals around us and I’d never seen so many dragonflies & butterflies just floating in those warm thermals, almost as if we could reach out and catch them, but God knows & I was truly thankful for that tough day, He saw us reach our peak & showed us the way to Cool Springs… which was for us ‘a garden of Eden’… boy did we need that spring water!!. To be permitted to share ‘those million little things’ is God in action in each of us… I have been truly blessed. Yes, I could go on, but thanks for stirring us to share, my dear, so appreciated. Best wishes for the new year, health, happiness & love, Bless you all. Peter.
Marlys Lawry
A great story, Peter. Well, actually two great stories. I picture Mackenzie Pass with butterflies and dragonflies. Good to hear from you!
Peter Howe B.E.M.
Much appreciated…. If you only knew how Oregon & its folk have changed my life/love for my neighbour… thanks again my dear. Peter.
Peter Howe B.E.M.
Much appreciated…. If you only knew how Oregon & its folk have changed my life/love for my neighbour… thanks again my dear. Peter.
Stephanie
A reminder of the value of each day, and contentment in things we take for granted. Thank you and Happy New Year!