The beauty of normal

Recently I’ve been feeling a desire to love the moments in life that usually pass me by. Or even learn to love the moments that naturally bug me out of my mind, but are normal. I read THIS article by Lindsay Dee and was baffled, inspired, and amazed by how she turned an annoying situation into a lesson learned and a bond strengthened. Lindsay Dee is overall a fabulous mom and great writer. I highly recommend her blog. She said when talking about her son:

“We are there for each other and work together to make our days count.  

I thought of this as I helped him go to sleep tonight (as he fought hard the whole way) and felt that amazing connection again, the one I’ll never get tired of. I offered a prayer of thanks for the gift of being able to experience it as he flung his arms around my neck and buried his head inside. His chest rising and falling with each breath, looking up at me every couple minutes with lips puckered for a kiss.”

Normally when P is fighting hard against sleep, my emotions immediately turn into annoyance. But, somehow this momma had perspective enough to realize that she was experiencing something special. Somehow she was able to be grateful for this normal occurrence.

I thought about this today as I was sitting on the floor playing with my boy (P). There we were, playing peekaboo while folding laundry, him running and sprawling newly cleaned clothes around the house, Pandora playing our favorite station in the background, and dancing to the music.  Normal.

I realized no matter how normal this moment seemed, it was actually rather peaceful. I had to take my guard down and not think about the fact that P was unfolding and making dirty our clean clothes, as fast as I could fold and clean them. I had to allow myself to enjoy the moment to embrace the beauty of this normal-ness.

If something not normal happened, and I couldn’t experience this moment again, I would miss my normal.  It is interesting how we take “normal” for granted, but when something unusual happens, “normal” is the first thing we miss.

What are the normal things you love about your life and how have you learned to appreciate them?