author Janet Chapman & Professor Brene Brown...simular thoughts & a question for you

Mom2oddson

Active Member
If you've never listened to the TEDx talks with Professor Brene Brown, they are very interesting. She studies shame and vulnerabilty. I find her talks fasinating.

One of the things that Brene talks about is how in our live with fb, tweets, etc... there is this push to be extraodinary. And when we don't feel that way it can make us depressed. So, she says to Honor the Ordinary in our lives.

So today, I finished reading Janet Chapman's newest book Courting Carolina and read her letter to her readers in the back of the book. She wrote:

The magic is real, people; as real as the sunrise, the ebb and flow of the tides, the haunted call of a loon, that unseen fish tugging on the end of a line, the birth of a baby, the death of a loved one. The problem, in my opinion, is that these things seem so everyday ordinary that we forget how extraordinary they really are.

......what Janet talks about as ordinary really puts a unique spin on Honoring the ordinary in our lives. So, I was wondering what, in your live, do you see as ordinary but is truly extraordinary?

The first one that comes to my mind is husband's smile. It's just an ordinary crooked smile, but it lights up my whole world!
 

recoveringenabler

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I'm a big fan of Brene Brown, I posted two of her talks on here awhile ago.

Wow, a few things come to mind:
Hearing my granddaughter and her friends cracking up in that complete abandon of innocent childhood.........having the time and money and energy to prepare a delicious, healthy, all together yummy meal and sharing it with my family.............being healthy..............baking a blueberry pie for my SO and watching him look just like a little kid when he sees it...................seeing my youngest brother's smiling face on Facebook, knowing he is the happiest he's ever been..............hearing from my old friends................driving 5 minutes to work (when I used to take the train to NYC for 45 minutes each way!).............having the time to read novels..................having skidded into this age without too many tread marks and laughing out loud almost every single day.

Thanks for the reminder of all there is to be grateful for!
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Very small ordinary things that I will never get tired of... and can have almost every day (in season where applicable):

Puppy-dog kisses and happy tail wags.
Fresh-picked berries.
The smell of fresh-baked bread.
Home-made apple pie (100% from scratch).
The smell of line-dried laundry.
 

Mom2oddson

Active Member
There is nothing that makes you feel more loved than a puppy-dog greeting! If I go outside to take the trash out, bella acts like I've been gone for a year and she thought she'd never see me again. All three dogs jockey to be the first one petted when I get home. I'm a rock-star in their world. heck...a rock-star would be lucky to be adored the way they adore me.
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
My grandma used to say that as long as you have two moving legs, two hardworking hands, two seeing eyes and two listening ears and quick enough brains and one compassionate heart, life is never going too awry. I still have all of those and that is something to be grateful.

I have also many other reasons to be grateful, I'm one of the lucky ones who have been given so much good things. And it is easy to forget. Both the bigger and smaller. But at times I do remember to pause and be grateful. Middle of my morning run I remember to be grateful of my body, my health and how well it works. It never gets old to watch my sons in the morning, just woken up, hear all messed up and last night's dreams still on their eyes. Or the beauty of my easy child when he sways on the border of boyhood and manhood. Or the stunning intensity and focus of my difficult child when he gets going. Safety of my husband's hand on the small of my back.

Smell of the crop during the harvest. Knowing that we will not be going hungry during the winter. Morning after a first frost night at fall, that exhilarating briskness. Swans flocking to our fields and bays, with their still grey young ones tacking along on their trip to south. Knowing they will be back first thing of spring, when the ice starts to melt. Silence of the snowy forest and blueness of endless winter nights. Scent of freshly cut wood in log pile, when sun first begins to warm them in March. Warmness of the sun on your face, when it is still below zero otherwise. Knowing that summer will come again. Smell of the land when it is time to plant. That short twilight between sundown and sunrise, when it doesn't get dark at all in June. Lazy, sunny summer days at boat, at the see with seagulls screaming, when everything is just perfect. So, so many things to be grateful!
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
That's why puppy dogs can be so therapeutic for a difficult child. As long as they are treated kindly, they give unconditional love in return. They don't care what kind of day you had, how bad you messed up. They care that you came home in one piece... Oh, and now that you're home... can we go chase a ball or take a hike or have a cuddle? Please???
 
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