Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: The Ordinary, The Extraordinary

Allow your day to pause for a moment. Think back to some of your fondest memories. Do they center on big accomplishments and grandiose endeavors? Are they about big purchases and major rewards? 

Or are they about small experiences, simple pleasures and little droplets in time that may have seemed insignificant then but left a big impact that still resonate with you now?

Small things. Ordinary things. Simple things. That’s where the extraordinary moments of joy can be found.

Truly, some of our greatest joys come from our most ordinary moments. 

Today, this week: Cultivate joy and find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Sheer Bliss

I recently finished reading Timeless Simplicity: Creative living in a consumer society by John Lane (2002; ISBN: 1 903998 00 X).  The book somehow ended up in my hand as I browsed our public library and I'm so glad I checked it out.  For many years, I've been fascinated by the voluntary simplicity movement, but this book took the concept beyond materialism to fulfillment of our life's purpose.  The author writes that we tend to know by the time we're adolescents what gives us bliss, who we are and what we must do in order for us to be our happiest and truest selves.  Our lives might take us on paths away from that bliss due to distraction, procrastination, etc., but Mr. Lane urges the reader to "Be sensitive to whatever your gift is, and never let it go."  I admit that when I write (whether it's my gift or not), I find bliss.  So thank you once again, reader, for following Time to Be and for your conversation and feedback via this blog, Facebook, Twitter, email or a chance conversation at the county fair.