Wednesday, November 13, 2013

An Ordinary Day

transformyourself.com


In the Land of the Over-Burdened,
an Ordinary Day is my Happily-Ever-After.
On an Ordinary Day, 
the sun grabs his hat and cane
and does a soft-shoe shuffle
across the sky,
just to make sure we notice.

In the Land of the Ordinary,
nothing ever happens.
I wake up, peaceful.
I survey the morning.
I make my tea.
All the hours ahead are mine.
No one needs me,
has a crisis,
needs a counseling session 
by phone.

Those days dont happen 
often enough
but, when they do,
the Ordinary Day
is my Land of Oz.

Last night at the end of a day 
too busy to do much 
gazing at the sky,
I did. 
Gathering an armload of wood 
to make a fire,
I stopped to gaze
at the crescent moon,
silvery against a navy blue sky 
full of storm-scudded clouds,
dark upon dark.
The space around the moon 
was clear which,
in that moment,
cleared an equal space 
around my heart,
proving an ordinary moment 
in an ordinary day
can turn extraordinary, 
just that quickly,
for those who have the eyes
~ and the willingness ~
to keep on looking up.

posted for Kim's prompt at Verse First: to write about the ordinary

25 comments:

  1. So beautifully penned. Ordinary or extraordinary is just a way of looking at things. :-)
    -HA

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  2. Dream on the clear sky at night and you never know what magical things might happen.
    Sounds like you are busy, my friend. Keep looking up :)

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  3. I enjoyed your description of what an ordinary day is like for you Sherry. A day where I'd make a fire would not be ordinary for me. "when they do, / the Ordinary Day / is my Land of Oz." - I like these lines.

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  4. Sherry, I wish you some ordinary days very soon....the kind of ordinary day where nothing much happens, the kind of day where time is ALL your own. I liked your last stanza & the reminder to keep looking up. I concur....we have to do this, no matter what!!

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  5. Those last 3 lines are the quencher... love this, Sherry (and needed it).

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  6. (I think Laurie meant "clincher," not "quencher"!) But it is all true, ordinary becomes extraordinary. It may seem boring to some, but being able to have expectations is most pleasurable to me--always has been, And I love how remembering to stop and look up lightens the load and brings out the spiritual in you.

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  7. oh yes....i love me an ordinary day...boring can be very sweet

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  8. ah i will keep on looking up...and keep looking forward to a few more of those ordinary days...smiles....

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  9. keep looking up! lovely. you spin a poignant tale with such depth Sherry

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  10. with my mind always racing... I'd love to wake up when nothing happened, and not only did no one 'need' me, but I didn't feel that I NEEDED to be doing something! quietness, and peacefulness isn't easy!

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  11. happiness reside in simple things:)!!

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  12. your staring at the moon with those dark and and darker clouds surrouning it yet it still pierced through remided me of times when I too would stare up at in the night hoping at the same time 'mamsita' who was many hundred miles away would be staring at the same moon. even in her ''Alz' and dimencia state staring up at the moon provided a moment of vacuus calm. I did this sometimes. we did in sync.

    hope your fire burned well mi amiga

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  13. Ah lovely! Reminded me a little of the Chinese curse--"may you live in interestng times.

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    1. Sherry--my iPad got stuck and wouldn't let me finish that comment without publishing--I was going to say that this reminded me of the Chinese curse "may you live in Interesting times," but you manage to embrace both the wonderfully predictable ordinary with the wonderfully predictable (if we but look for it) extraordinary. Very very nice. K. (Manicddaily)

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  14. to have the eyes and the willingness to keep on looking up....this is absolutely necessary to find the extraordinary in the ordinary and make life joyful...a great write up.

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  15. ah, the ordinary day, can really be the good times that there not cracked up to be. Sometimes the ordinary day is the stuff of dreams. Nice one

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  16. Beautiful, Sherry. This is like taking a deep, cleansing breath.

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  17. Sherry,

    The subject of this poetry prompt was 'right up your street,' Sherry, given your present circumstances!!!
    I know each day will have seemed long for you, but in truth you will have given your heart and soul to care for your little house guest and the extra critters. It is who you are...Tiring but you have such a sharing spirit:)
    Hope you can now see the wood for the trees..
    Eileen:)

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  18. So many beautiful images!! Really one of my favorites!!! Thank you Sherry.

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  19. those are the kind of days I enjoy...

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  20. My favorite days are ordinary days. I love the way you describe yours - the sun, the moon, the gazing. This enough to make any day extraordinary. And to think it happens daily.

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  21. All Dorothy Gale wanted was to get home..ordinary is definitely good..and when the sun shines..even better..

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  22. Lovely - each ordinary moment becomes extraordinary depending on how we view it. Or as Dan Millman writes - There are no Ordinary moments. Loved your poem.

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