This quote is from the book The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. "But as all the identities I worked so hard to construct over the years begin to slough away, I feel myself reconnecting with my own quiet center. It is as if I am, at last, catching a glimpse of myself not as I might wish to be, but as I am. I see a woman who is less ambitious than she once was. Someone less self-conscious, less invested in appearances, but also less "special" than the person I always thought I was meant to be. I see my own ordinariness. And I see that to be ordinary is okay after all."
This is what I'm becoming now in my mid-fifties. I'm not completely accepting the part about being ordinary though. I don't want to be ordinary, but I know that it's an okay place to be, I guess.
3 comments:
I'm beginning to experience this shift in self-awareness as well. I stopped teaching 2 years ago, and although I'm homeschooling, I'm having to cope with being a person who no longer works for money. But I'll say, about begin ordinary, that I've never, ever considered artists (of which you are one) to be ordinary. They seem to have a different mind, a different eye, a different look at the world.
Another good quote. Accepting ordinary is not jiving with me either. On one hand, I *can* be ordinary, because as a Believer Christ is extraordinary. On the other hand I think every woman has something extraordinary, some gift, something that makes them unique. But maybe we are not better than everyone else in our doing whatever that thing is....and maybe that is where "ordinary-ness" or contentment comes in? I don't know....but I like thinking about it. =)
Thanks M.K. Now I feel special and not ordinary because of your gracious comments! I agree with you Wayside Wanderer. God has gifted each of us with special gifts and abilities, so in that sense, we're unique. But looking at humanity as a whole, I guess we're quite common. I enjoyed both your comments.
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