Extraordinary in the Ordinary

I watched the sunrise this morning. I dragged the trash cans to the end of our lane. A raccoon ran towards the barn. As I walked back to the house, I saw the raccoon's tracks in the dirty snow.

I remembered last summer. On an ordinary day, a young raccoon sat in a hack berry tree and watched me below. Patient and quiet. He waited for me to go away. Only then would he have the courage to run to the machine shed to safety. Later, his tracks were clear in the mud, even the next morning. His tracks look like tiny human hand prints.

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave." --Dakota proverb.

Each of us, what tracks do we leave behind us on a normal day?

I read Yes, World, A Mosaic of Meditation by Mary Jane Irion. On page 53, is the essay "Let Me Hold You While I May".

"A normal day! Holding it in my hand this one last moment, I have come to see it as more than an ordinary rock. It is a gem, a jewel. In time of war, in peril of death, people have dug their hands and faces into the earth and remembered this. In time of sickness and pain, people have buried their faces in pillows and wept for this. In times of loneliness and separation, people have stretched themselves taut and waited for this.In time of hunger, homelessness and want, people have raised their bony hands to the skies and stayed alive for this. . . .

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savor you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky. and want more than all the world your return. And then I will know what now I am guessing:  that you are, indeed, a common rock and not a jewel, but that a common rock made of the very mass substance of the earth in all its strength and plenty puts a gem to shame. The day is over, and now I will sleep."

And I think again of the raccoons. And you. And me. And all of God's creation.

Ordinary, yet not. Extraordinary in the ordinary. Everywhere. Always.

Let's go for appreciation of the ordinary.

Joy in the moment. Generosity With Everybody. With ideas that are different from our own.

Give Grace. Give Mercy. Forgive. Care. Love.

Jesus does.

John 13:34 - "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Here's Carrie Newcomer's song, "On the Brink of Everything"? Please listen, if you like.

Common-woman appreciates you. "As we stand in wonder, on the brink of everything."

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave." --Dakota proverb.

--Yes World, A Mosaic of Meditation, Irion, Mary Jane, 1970, Richard Baron Publishing, p. 53.