Extraordinarily Mundane
My mind swirls with a mixture of the mundane and the extraordinary today. The mundane fills my day – laundry, work, breakfast, kids to school, watching the weather – the stuff of life. But the extraordinary sits on the edge – my father-in-law (my husband’s stepfather) passed away last night. We knew it was coming, though it came on very fast. I have no regrets, the kids all saw him on Sunday, I saw him yesterday morning, my husband saw him in the afternoon.
When I think about it, I realize this incredible dance between the mundane and the extraordinary goes on every day in all of our lives. People die, people give birth, people get married, people get divorced, people adopt, people move, people graduate, all extraordinary events and yet the mundane goes on through it all.
The extraordinary gets the attention, just watch the news (missing people, multiple births, winning the game, get the trophy, etc.). And yet, it is the mundane that holds our lives in place. Getting up, having coffee, going to work, praying, doing laundry, going to church, reading a book, cleaning the bathroom – these are the bones of our life. Maybe that’s why so many celebrities seem to crash and burn – too much extraordinary and not enough mundane to ground them.
This week I’ll have my share of extraordinary as my father-in-law is laid to rest and we pay our final respects. But it is the mundane that will heal. Life continues.
Excellent!!
Amazing wisdom in this blog! It makes me praise God for the mundane. Sheila is right, the mundane is what holds our lives in place. Thanks for writing this.
Good to remember how mysterious our lives really are. How little control over weather, politics, earthquakes and yes, the death of a beloved. Or even a not-so-beloved.
When a family member dies, the psychic furniture rearranges itself. Hard not to bang your shins on the new configuation until you are adjusted to it.