Just another day . . .

Each morning I like to start my day with a reading from the book The Language of Letting Go by Melodie Beattie. I highly recommend it to anyone. There is a beautiful reading and affirmation for each day and I like to have something to ruminate on in those few quiet moments I can steal in my hectic day.

I have been meaning to blog because so many extraordinary things have happened the past month, that I don't even know where to start. The passage from my book a couple of days ago, though, shifted my focus. I had just gotten back from vacation and had so many adventures that I was feeling a bit saddened by going back to the humdrum of everyday life. As it has happened so many times before, the passage for that day was just perfect. The lesson was to recognize all the beauty in your everyday ordinary routine. What would you miss? The affirmation at the end of the passage was, "God, thank you for every detail of my ordinary, every day world."

There will be many blogs to come about all the extraordinary adventures I've had, but today I felt compelled to take a look at and appreciate all of the ordinary things that happen to me throughout the day that I would really miss if they were gone. A lot of these things, I realize will be gone in two months when I head back to the United States.

I love that when my alarm goes off in the morning for work, I hit the button on my automatic blackout shades and the sun comes pouring in to my bedroom. I'm grateful for those first few moments of opening my eyes and thinking about the upcoming day. I appreciate this moment even more so nowadays because for a few months out here waking up in my bed, alone, used to be the toughest moment of my day. Now, I feel peace and comfort.

On most days, when I catch the elevator in my apartment building to head to the MRT, the cleaning woman is in the elevator wiping down the mirrors and walls. She doesn't speak much English, but her face always lights up with a smile. I think one of the only words she knows in English is, "Pool?" so she tends to ask me that every morning. I just shake my head and smile. We have the understanding that we can't really communicate but she is just so joyful and happy. It's nice to share the elevator ride down with her.

Usually on my train ride to work, my friend Chelsey texts me to say, "Good morning." We will banter back and forth and talk about the upcoming day or an idea we had for a project we are writing. I'm so grateful for that, just having someone who thinks of me every morning.

When I get in to work, I have the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with a group of people that I adore and will definitely miss. Our motley crew has become a family, a highly dysfunctional, but loving family. I love all of our inside jokes, our group dynamic and the fact that we can watch the same seven movies over and over again in our dressing room and still laugh.

At the end of the day, I head home to an apartment that I love on the top floor of a beautiful condo development with four room mates that I am forever grateful for. We are usually all in the kitchen, making dinner or "fairy cakes" and catching each other up on the most recent happenings. Kopi, the house cat, is usually laying around watching all the action as the sun goes down. I feel like I hit the lottery to have Jac, Bill, Tori and Greg as room mates. I am grateful every day for them.

That's my ordinary day. We go through our ordinary days sometimes just waiting to get to that next vacation or our weekend or some special vacation but there's so much to appreciate and be grateful for in our ordinary days. I was really glad to have a reminder of that. Take a look at your "boring" ordinary days . . . I bet you will find that life isn't so ordinary.