How to Elevate the Everyday
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A day can feel like it flows into the next almost seamlessly, so we need to elevate the everyday. We can make it special, or let it pass by without much thought. Which would you prefer?
I want the specificity of making it memorable…
I’ve learned that even when no one else is around, I can still make simple tasks, ordinary parts of my day, special. In fact, that’s when it matters most.
Washing the dishes while staring out the window. Polishing the furniture with a cotton rag in big, sweeping circles.
Every Day is What We Have
Because when it comes down to it, the everyday, today, is what we have. Not tomorrow, not next week. Today.
Wake up luxuriously. Pause for a few minutes. Then get up slowly, enjoying the journey of lightly stepping from sleep to wakefulness.
Add something special to your simple bowl of oatmeal. Walnuts or pecans, nut butter, fresh or frozen fruit. Maybe add cinnamon, nutmeg, or a splash of vanilla extract. A small drizzle of honey.
Sit down at the table and get comfortable. Drink your juice or water from an elegant glass, one of the favorites that you always fear breaking. Sip your morning coffee as though you have all the time in the world to savor it.
Because you do. You have right now, this place, this moment in time.
You could pick up your phone or tablet and read, but why not enjoy the silence and what surrounds you? Maybe watch the birds outside your window or just stare at nothing until your breathing slows and your body relaxes.
Enjoy the Rain
I always love the rain, sitting still and listening to it tap softly against the window, drops running in rivulets down the glass. The world softened, muted, the sound like my heart beating.
It is this that I cherish. Slow mornings. Kitties fed and playing or heading off to take a nap. The kitchen dimmed because the sunlight is hidden behind the rain clouds. They are full and gray, about to burst.
Reminding me of being pregnant, all those years ago, and waddling from room to room. Nesting, preparing, waiting.
Then small children running around me. Wiping dirty mouths and sticky hands. Hurrying, hurrying because something always needed to be done.
I continued that pace, needlessly, once they were grown. I don’t know why. It’s not as though rushing through the days will promise you more of them.
Then it’s like sand filtering through your fingers, days passing in a blur. Time a ticking clock and the days unremarkable and fleeting.
Savor the Day…
Rinse the coffee cup, turn it over to dry on the cotton towel. Stay there at the window for a pause or two.
You have a few errands to run later. Or maybe, you can put it off a day or so. Nothing is compelling you to get up and head out the door into rainy traffic.
Savor the day. The simplicity of it, the unexceptional tone of it.
Chores remain, but they can wait. There is just you, the room, and the weather outside. The rain taps out a chorus, a soft melody and cadence.
Maybe you get up and pour another cup of coffee or tea, then return to your seat at the table. Stare out the window. Watch the day crawl forward with nothing pressing to weigh it down.
If worries creep into your thoughts, look at them like a balloon tethered to a string. Open your fist and let them float up and away.
The Simple Poetry of Slow Days
This is the simple poetry of slow days. Even though there is nothing extraordinary about it, it can be romanticized in little ways.
Just by adding a touch of something special. A pretty bowl for your oatmeal, a pretty cloth napkin beside it, the spoon a mirror in the dim light.
Maybe condensation drops poise at the end of a plant leaf, adding to the humidity hovering in the air. There is the glimmer of lights as cars slowly pass by in the street. The sound of tires trekking through the rain sounds like the hiss of a steam iron.
Your view of the day ahead, your perspective of it, has changed imperceptibly. It has coalesced around slowing down, enjoying this moment in time.
By romanticizing the little things, the ordinary things, you can completely switch the playlist.
That’s really all it takes to put a different face on things. To dress it up with frills and lace like the sheer curtain that covers your window.
You are the master of your universe. This day you hold in your hands is like a gold nugget. It is yours. Pause and feel its weight.
Linger and let the rain synchronize with the beat of your heart.
Get up and take it with you for the future. A place in time called memory lane.
