Normal Day

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.  Let me learn from, love 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 may not always be so.  One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."
                                                                                                                      - Mary Jean Irion



            Yesterday, for me, was a normal day. Nothing extraordinary, nothing out of the ordinary.  My children and husband woke up happy, I fed my children, we visited with some people that we love, had supper as a family, took baths, read bedtime stories, said prayers and went to sleep feeling that yesterday was a normal but good day.


           Yesterday, for some, was an anything but normal day. Several friends who are very near and dear to me had days that ranged from extraordinary to devastating. Yesterday my cousin and his wife sat in a courtroom, on their 3rd wedding anniversary, and waited to hear a judges ruling on whether the foster child that they have had since he was a couple of weeks old would be taken away.  Yesterday a precious friend put her hand on her belly and remembered the baby that she miscarried 1 year ago to the day, she also thanked God for the precious baby that is growing inside of her.  Yesterday a friend got a call that no one wants to receive. Her brother had suddenly died leaving behind his 3 young children.  Yesterday some friends ran around town doing last minute preparation's for their wedding on Saturday.


       People get jobs, people lose jobs.  People are born and people die.  People get a clear bill of health and people get diagnosed with cancer. It is life.  These things, as hard as we may try, cannot be avoided. On the days when life seems mundane or we are craving more may we stop and be thankful. May we stop wanting more and instead relish in the here and now.

       There will be days and chapters in all of our lives that we will hurt and in those days we will find ourselves praying, begging for a normal day. Be thankful for the here and now for none of us know what tomorrow may bring.