Allow Ordinary to be Extraordinary

I sat on my little apartment porch that overlooked the pond as evening clouds started to rest beside the sunset. I was wrapped in my softest blanket, pajamas underneath at 5:30 PM, and a glass of white wine that was now perfectly chilled from the December air. It was New Years Eve, and I was exactly where I wanted to be. I wanted to watch the year set. I wanted to watch the sun descend on the many days and nights that I took several brave steps forward into a year that nearly broke me. A year that made me. As I reflected back on 2023, I thanked God for all of it. For humbly leading me, and continuously providing an abundance of safety and love, through all of it. The final disclosure. The inpatient stay. The out-of-state move. The new job. The name change. The opportunity to date again; to experience connection in healthy relationship. And as the last of the sun caressed the tree tops, my chosen theme for the new year rose high into the sky among the stars that were now reflecting the promise of a new year. The year 2024 would be my year to allow ordinary to be extraordinary.

So much of every day life had been years of chaos followed by years of uncertain steps forward to leave the chaos. The ordinary of life had been acutely unpredictable. I needed to stabilize. I wanted to sit back and soak it all in; to be fully immersed and present in the ordinary of the every day life I worked hard to reclaim and redefine. I wanted to be intentional in how I spent my time. I wanted to be intentional in my healing.

I decided part of my healing in the New Year would involve the regulation of my thought patterns. Forming pathways in my brain for the new life I was creating that would eventually overcome and replace any lingering, ruminating thoughts of the prior chapter.

I decided part of my healing would be accepting the life that was prior, was in fact, a chapter. Not the whole story, but one part of the story, that God was continuing to unfold.

I decided part of my healing would be continuing to reach for self-compassion. I would shift some of the same love I have for helping others onto myself. I would learn to see myself, my values and my needs, as important.

I asked God to meet me in these declarations. To meet me exactly where I was in this phase of the healing process.

What are you reaching for in this New Year?

What feels tangible and safe?

What is already in us, that only needs to awaken?

As we hover in the space that rests between one year ending and a new year beginning, I pray for more moments of peace in your ordinary.

I pray this new year releases that which no longer serves you.

I pray we make room for the ordinary moments of life that can lead to extraordinary healing.