On my daily online blog I like to
put poems I write on my observations about life. Here’s something I wrote about:
Just An Ordinary Day
No accidents, no
traumas
to deal with. Just very quiet.
Meals to cook, laundry to do
plans
to make, opportunities
surround me, but I look
with half closed eyes,
wanting more––something special,
different, exciting––not really
appreciating just a normal day.
We
are surrounded by ordinary things that are really quite extraordinary, if we
take the time to contemplate: a heart that regularly beats hour after hour,
cuts that heal quickly, hot water from the tap, flush toilets, refrigerators to
keep your food from spoiling, etc. I realized this as I was doing my laundry
the other day and wrote down these verses:
WOMAN’S
WORK
Beating clothes on rocks in streams
or carrying water to pour
into tubs,
a tired woman scrubs on her washboard,
lays garments on rocks
and bushes to dry.
No machines do her work,
just elbow grease, sun and
wind.
If rain or dust soil clean laundry,
she begins her day’s labor over.
My grandma thrills with her mangle
washer, the ease of wringing clothes.
No twisting or squeezing laundry
by hand continues to amaze her.
Living in rural
railroad housing
without electricity, my dad buys
a gas operated washer for
mom.
Luxury comes to her Spartan lifestyle.
Drying wet laundry demands a
clothes line,
I think of their hands working outside
while I toss my dirty
clothes in machines
that do my work easily for me.
Instead
of COMPLAINING about life’s problems, try being THANKFUL for the progress that
has come to your life compared to your ancestor’s lives. They struggled with no electricity or automobiles. You
can’t imagine life without a cell phone. Try to practice more gratitude and
less complaining in your life. When the frig starts making strange noises and
you need to call a repairman, be grateful. When the computer breaks down, be
thankful you have one. If a relative disappoints you, respond with love and
forgiveness because you are part of a family. Take some time today to write in
your journal a list of things you are thankful for and be amazed at how it
changes your outlook on a normal ordinary day. NEXT TIME: Good Old Days?