Hello, dear friends. Here I am, sharing another entry from the pages of my soul, in this, my weekly audio journal.
Yesterday, as dusk settled and the last hues of the day gave way to a velvety night, I stumbled upon a poem by William Martin, one that whispered to me about the beauty of not asking our children to strive for extraordinary lives. The words leaped off the page, landing in my heart like a warm embrace.
He wrote, “Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may be admirable, but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples, and pears.
Show them how to cry when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.”
As the poem soaked into my being, I felt a familiar, bittersweet pang, recognising how often I had sought happiness in the attainment of some future goal, only to find that when that elusive X was finally reached, the goalposts shifted, leaving me chasing the horizon once more. It's a tantalising dance, this perpetual pursuit of happiness, like a firefly that flits just beyond our grasp, its glow enticing and maddeningly elusive.
And in that dance, there's a revelation, a secret whispered by the wind: "Make the extraordinary come alive for them." This is a truth I've spoken of before, a lesson I've learned and relearned, and yet it still bears repeating. If we can find the extraordinary in the ordinary, in the everyday moments that make up our lives, we can inch closer to a sense of fulfilment, a contentment that is deeper and more resonant than fleeting happiness.
Happiness, I've come to understand, is a transient emotion, impossible to hold onto and ill-suited to be our constant companion. We are meant to experience the entire spectrum of human emotion, to dip our toes in the waters of joy and sorrow, anger and calm, and everything in between.
But it's in the small, seemingly inconsequential acts that we can discover a sense of purpose. It's in the everyday choices to shift our mindset, to be grateful, to show appreciation, that we begin to weave the tapestry of a life that feels rich, vibrant, and meaningful.
And as those moments accumulate, like grains of sand that form a beautiful, sprawling beach, we can look back on days, weeks, months, and years, and see the reflection of a life well-lived, a life in which happiness bloomed, not because we chased it, but because we chose to find it in the smallest of things.
So thank you, dear listeners, for lending your ears to my thoughts today. May you, too, find the extraordinary in the ordinary, and may your lives be filled with the wonder and marvel of all that is.
