Photo (c) Stacey Nerdin, credit & link when using
This weekend on a flight home from the Type A Parent Conference, I was lucky enough to sit alone in an exit row seat with full access to the window. I have no fears about flying, and generally enjoy watching the sky and sneaking peeks of the ground whenever we’re close enough to pick out features in the landscape.
On this flight I decided to pull out my camera and take pictures of some of the spectacular cloud formations out my window. I took first five, then a dozen, and probably 20 or more pictures before I realized other passengers were watching me. I got a little embarrassed and quickly put my camera away.
And then I remembered something author Patti Digh said during her opening keynote of the conference. She told us that when something happens for the first time, we call it a miracle. But every other time it happens, we call it ordinary. We need to reclaim the miracle. We need to reclaim the extraordinary in every day life.
When did it become ordinary to fly among the clouds? When did anything become ordinary to you that once seemed unlikely, impossible, or improbable? Is there a miracle in your life that needs to be reclaimed? Are there many?
I decided not to let my own embarrassment keep me from remaining in awe of the clouds; I took out my camera and took dozens more pictures before the end of my short flight. I’m so glad I did. When I showed them to my family, their own amazement at the cloud formations affirmed what I had been feeling all along.
Don’t miss the chance to be amazed, even by something you see or do every day. Celebrate the ordinary. Reclaim the miracle.
You can connect with Stacey on her personal blog, Tree, Root, and Twig, or on Twitter and Google+