Ordinary. Extraordinarily ordinary ♥️. Ordinary waffles for breakfast. Ordinary walks with the hubs. Ordinary conversations, chores, moments, clothes, feelings….
For a long time, I did not appreciate the ordinary.
This has been one of the most cherished gifts and lessons given to me by my husband.
Early in our marriage, when cameras still used film, my husband would photograph the most ordinary of things and moments – eggs sitting on a sleeping bag when camping, family moments when no one (and I mean no one) was made up, dressed in their best and clean….Instead, there were photos of my parents arms wrapped around me on a summer day; nieces and nephews with ice cream mustaches and dirt on their clothes from playing; late afternoon Frisbee games on a freshly mowed lawn….
“Why waste the film or your camera time on such ordinary events?” I would ask him. I would fume sometimes that no-one was photo ready and why would any of us want to remember such a forgettable, ordinary moment. My husband would simply smile and say that he was enjoying himself, capturing snippets of life, practicing his art. He was gentle with my impatience and lack of understanding. He happily snapped away and slowly, over time, the memories began growing.
Thousands of photos and years later in the digital age, we have a mix of big, fancy moments and hundreds upon hundreds of ordinary moments lovingly captured by my husband, a true lover of life. And you know what? When all is said and done, the photos and videos I treasure the most are not the picture perfect ones but the memories of these beautiful, wonderful, ordinary moments.
So just for today, I hope you will join me in this movement to appreciate the beautiful in the ordinary, to take the darn photo or video no matter how made up/hot mess you’re feeling …because it is beautiful. You are beautiful..and the ordinary is the most beautiful background we have to help us appreciate the extraordinary of all that is our lives.