The word "ordinary" is a scary word to me. I have never wanted to be someone who just lived an ordinary life. Ordinary to me screams boring, mundane, mediocre. And yet, lately, I feel like my life has just been an extreme case of ordinary.
When I think back, I've had a lot of extraordinary moments. They came in a summer internship in Europe where I dangled my toes over the Seine River in Paris, walked the beaches of Barcelona, ate pizza in Italy, and called London and its people "home." Where I learned the meaning of poverty and appreciation for life in the mountains of Mexico with my best friends. It's when I met Owen, or better yet, that magical day I married him. It's when I went to India and got to teach college girls how to use a computer and do crafts with children who had no parents. It's the day Jace was born and everything suddenly paled in comparison to the most beautiful face I had ever seen.
Here I am now, married with a 2 year old and another baby on the way. My college diploma has been traded in for piles of laundry and puzzles. While I am living the life I have always dreamed of, I find that I am camped back at ordinary.
People say things like "if there was no dark, there wouldn't be light," or "for good to exist, evil must exist." I think I've parked myself in the zone that says "I'm taking up the space of ordinary so that extraordinary people can shine." All around me I see people filled with gifts and talents and resources that make the world ooh and aww. I've allowed myself to believe my part is to live ordinary, so the extraordinary ones can do their thing.
While the years feel short, the days often feel long and if we truly let ourselves believe we peaked somewhere back there, that our glory days are actually behind us, then there wouldn't be much left to propel us forward. But every one of those peaks of the past weren't meant to be an endpoint, they were catalysts that kept things moving forward, shaping us into better versions of ourselves.
We all have the potential to be extraordinary. I'm learning that my extraordinary isn't relative to anyone else's, it's only relative to me. Extraordinary is not one-size fits all or none, extraordinary is unique. The measuring stick we use to compare ourselves to other people needs to be broken. The only measurement that matters is the individual one--am I living within my full potential? I can choose to be an ordinary mom, wife, friend, and sister, which is what I have been doing. Or I can choose to be an extraordinary one, which in this season might look like an ordinary life but--doing things with a grateful heart, with an attitude of appreciation, with the awareness that I am blessed and so have been entrusted and equipped to bless others. Every job we are given in every season of life is important and essential for that moment and every moment after it. Just as the past has shaped me into a better me, the present should be shaping me into a better future me.
We are all filled with a tangled web of love and adventure and creativity and passion. We can choose to lock it all up and live ordinary lives. Or, we can pull it all out from the shadows we have casted, and we can unleash the beauty that lives in--
our own kind of extraordinary.
When I think back, I've had a lot of extraordinary moments. They came in a summer internship in Europe where I dangled my toes over the Seine River in Paris, walked the beaches of Barcelona, ate pizza in Italy, and called London and its people "home." Where I learned the meaning of poverty and appreciation for life in the mountains of Mexico with my best friends. It's when I met Owen, or better yet, that magical day I married him. It's when I went to India and got to teach college girls how to use a computer and do crafts with children who had no parents. It's the day Jace was born and everything suddenly paled in comparison to the most beautiful face I had ever seen.
Here I am now, married with a 2 year old and another baby on the way. My college diploma has been traded in for piles of laundry and puzzles. While I am living the life I have always dreamed of, I find that I am camped back at ordinary.
People say things like "if there was no dark, there wouldn't be light," or "for good to exist, evil must exist." I think I've parked myself in the zone that says "I'm taking up the space of ordinary so that extraordinary people can shine." All around me I see people filled with gifts and talents and resources that make the world ooh and aww. I've allowed myself to believe my part is to live ordinary, so the extraordinary ones can do their thing.
While the years feel short, the days often feel long and if we truly let ourselves believe we peaked somewhere back there, that our glory days are actually behind us, then there wouldn't be much left to propel us forward. But every one of those peaks of the past weren't meant to be an endpoint, they were catalysts that kept things moving forward, shaping us into better versions of ourselves.
We all have the potential to be extraordinary. I'm learning that my extraordinary isn't relative to anyone else's, it's only relative to me. Extraordinary is not one-size fits all or none, extraordinary is unique. The measuring stick we use to compare ourselves to other people needs to be broken. The only measurement that matters is the individual one--am I living within my full potential? I can choose to be an ordinary mom, wife, friend, and sister, which is what I have been doing. Or I can choose to be an extraordinary one, which in this season might look like an ordinary life but--doing things with a grateful heart, with an attitude of appreciation, with the awareness that I am blessed and so have been entrusted and equipped to bless others. Every job we are given in every season of life is important and essential for that moment and every moment after it. Just as the past has shaped me into a better me, the present should be shaping me into a better future me.
We are all filled with a tangled web of love and adventure and creativity and passion. We can choose to lock it all up and live ordinary lives. Or, we can pull it all out from the shadows we have casted, and we can unleash the beauty that lives in--
our own kind of extraordinary.
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