The Beautiful Ordinary

"To let no bird fly past unnoticed...
to have the mind a storehouse of sunsets,
requires a discipline in pleasure
and an education in gratitude."
~ G.K. Chesterton

 

     In the summertime on our island, there is a fishing village where locals and vacationers gather in the evenings to enjoy the feast of colors, and to hoot and applaud as the setting sun seems to curtsy right into the ocean.  There are some days when those radiant displays of light cause us to catch our breath and sigh.  These are moments of exhilaration and celebration.  We have not taken the miraculous for granted.  We have shown our appreciation.  This gives rise to a deep sense of harmony, blessedness and belonging.

     In truth, the sun rises and sets every day ~ this is a routine, daily, one could say perfectly ordinary occurrence, and often we will look out into the night and realize we have once again missed the show.  We are, after all, busy with our busy lives.  Yet what is routine, daily, and ordinary, still pulses with miraculous mystery, beauty, energy and aliveness ~ whether we pay attention, or we don't.  When we do pay attention, our lives feel much richer for it...
~ Ingrid Goff-Maidoff,  From the Introduction to The Beautiful Ordinary

~

The world sparks and hums with radiance. 
Even when we fail to notice, all still shimmers and shines.

~Ingrid
~

Let us love, since that is all
our hearts were made for.
~St. Therese of Lisieux

~

The true way to live is
to enjoy every moment as it passes ~
and surely it is in everyday things around us
that the beauty of life lies.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

~

In music... in the sea, in a flower,
in a leaf, in an act of kindness...
I see what people call God
in all these things.
~Pablo Casals

~

There is no such thing in anyone's life
as an unimportant day.
Alexander Woollcott

from The Beautiful Ordinary, Uplifting Quotations