Take the simple

and the ordinary and turn it into the happy and wonderful. You can do it everyday." That is a line from the song "Dawn Has Come" by the monks of the Weston Priory. That line has almost become a mantra or an anthem to me.

Our lives are full of ordinary, every day kinds of moments, we need to appreciate them for what they are. As they say when you take a trip if you spend all of your time looking forward to your destination, you'll miss the joys of the journey - of course for anyone who has ever traveled the NJ Turnpike, maybe 'joys of the journey' is being a bit optimistic.
In the show 24, which I admit to not watching, but I understand is a great show - the premise is that the whole season makes up one 24 hour day. And each action-packed episode makes up an hour of that day. If our real lives were like that I think we'd all have strokes or heart attacks or simply die from exhaustion. Who can take that much excitement at one time? I'm sure it makes for great TV viewing though.

In the Stephen Sondheim musical "Into the Woods" there is a song called "Any Moment". In it the baker's wife is ruminating on the tryst she just had with the Prince. The Prince has left her, but assured her it was a great moment for him. She wonders why life can't be always full of 'moments' like that. But then goes on to realize that "if life were only moments, even now and then a bad one - if life were only moments, then we'd never know we had one."
The point is, and I suppose I do have a point, that life is made up of the simple and ordinary things, with some excitement thrown in for spice and seasoning. But if we wait around for the exciting parts we might miss the bulk of our life.

What makes up the bulk of my life right now? Being a stay-at-home Catholic Mom to two elementary school-aged children. Being a wife. Taking care of the things around the home that need taking care of. Why am I starting a blog? To share thoughts I have about the things around me - the ordinary and the not so ordinary. Stay tuned.