It's Definitely A Big Deal!
There are just days that have no magic in them. Sometimes, we do not have the energy to be our best and that is perfectly normal. With a toned-down zest for life, messy hair on the loose, and our face having no traces of society's standard for beauty, we are all set to nestle on the bed and put down our armors after a long day of battle.
Every day, we work so hard to give our best in every aspect of our lives even when sometimes it doesn't make us happy. We do so because we have a greater goal - perhaps providing for our family, traveling to a new place or saving up for the future. We put in a strong effort in achieving our dreams one day at a time too, despite all the criticisms and rejections we receive along the way because we do not want to disappoint the people who believe in us, and sometimes the people who rely on us. We hustle for our loved ones - their happiness is our happiness and we want to give them the best by sharing what we have.
That is why, when we can finally take our heavy protective armors off after a long day, and confide in the comfort of our home, our bed, our ordinariness, it is only but proper to give the utmost credit to ourselves even when we are not looking glamorous at all. We have to give ourselves a tap at the back for giving our best, yes, but this moment is beyond that. This is also about seeing ourselves as who we are and not because of the many roles and responsibilities we juggle throughout our day.
When we are able to accept our ordinariness - in terms of how we look, what our thoughts are, what we do, we become more appreciative of our wholeness. We begin to fully understand that it is okay to not have intense days all the time. It is okay to breathe and to pause.
We have to practice it many times. We have to work on acknowledging that our worth is not based on an "if-then" situation - if we are successful, if we have a good job, if we have a good romantic relationship. No! We are worthy because we are. Even when our days are less exciting or even when we're feeling like a couch potato, our lives matter.
It takes a strong effort on our part to shift our paradigms from being chained to the world's conditional love for us to be accepting of our life's many varied seasons. What we see on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - social media in general - must morph into something more than just celebrating the glitter and glamour. We must share more of our ordinary moments in our everyday lives, and not just posting perfectly curated photos of the activities we do that portray perfection. We have to make loving our ordinariness a trend too - but we can only do so when we have learned to accept it fully.
There is a beautiful passage from the book "The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming" by Henri J.M. Nouwen, which I am currently reading as of this writing that goes:
"Often, I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me." (p. 42)
How much we appreciate ourselves and how clear we see our worth are not only based on days when we are feeling alive, invincible, and strong but also on days when we feel no magic in them at all!
In other words, bahala'g haggard, basta naningkamot. Bahala'g hago og nawng, pangga-a gihapon imong kaugalingon.
"Sometimes, it is not the strength, but gentleness, that cracks the hardest shells."
- Richard Paul Evans
How are you going to celebrate your ordinary moments?
Love,
Mary Jedde
Glam and glitters seems like a fantasy to me, a moment where we can feel precious but on a temporary. A person must face his/her ordinariness because that's where the true self comes out. Believe me when I say, the true self is more beautiful than the glam self. And the appreciation a person receives from his/her ordinary self if much precious and genuine than the glam self. 💎❤️
ReplyDeleteFast forward to next Thursday plsssss hahahahaha
Very difficult to achieve. Honestly for me. It feels as though I'm becoming hardwired to perfectly curate my life on social media. While we have a choice to do so, it's still important to shift our attention to the ordinariness too. Because it makes up most of our days! Hahahaa!
DeleteThanks for dropping by, Lui!