for young women
Vol. 4, No. 1

Another day...

The same thing everyday... "Nothing exciting ever happens in my life. I get up, I get dress, I eat, I go to work, I go to school, I come home, I prepare supper, I do my laundry, I clean house, I go to bed. Day after day I do the same things. My life is so ordinary"!

Have you ever heard these words before? Maybe you have said them yourself. Well if you have you are not alone. Many people look upon their life as being very ordinary. They do not see themselves as doing anything important in life.

Personal Experience of the Extraordinary

One day I was cooking fresh shrimps. This was my first time. With cookbook in one hand and stirring spoon in the other I was carefully following the directions. Suddenly I noticed that the dark colour of the shrimps was now being transformed into a bright red colour. I could not believe my eyes! Little did I know that this is what happens when shrimps are cooking. This was a miracle happening before my very eyes. I thought of how extraordinary this was. Then I realized that if I cooked shrimps every day I would hardly even notice this change. It would become so ordinary. What would be different then? The miracle would still happen but I might no longer see it as such. I would lose my sense of awe, my sense of wonder at the extraordinary.

How do we see the ordinary in our life as being extraordinary?

One of the ways is through a heightened awareness of our senses. As we take time to pause, to stop and to feel the wind on our cheeks, to taste the sweetness of the fruit, to hear the song of the bird, to see buds growing on the trees, to smell the roses - - it is then that we will see the extraordinary; it is then that we will witness the miracles in our life.

Ordinary...	Extraordinary!
You are disturbed by a baby's cry...	You are awed by the miracle of life!
You see more snow at the end of winter...	You notice the beauty and uniqueness in the shape of every snowflake that falls!
You are faced with another rainy day...	You are aware of the raindrops falling on the flowers and nourishing the dry earth!
You are sitting doing nothing...	You become aware of your breathing and the wonderful gift of life in your body!

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Let us pray

God of miracles, open my heart and my eyes
so that I may see the extraordinary
in the events of my day.
Let me realize that the kind word, the smile,
the phone call, all have the potential of being extraordinary.
They have the power to heal, to bring life, to console.
They have the power to be miracles in the life of another.
Let me be that miracle worker who transforms the ordinary
into the extraordinary.
Amen

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Share with us your experience of the extraordinary in your life.
Send us feedback about 'the more'.
Sr. Thérèse Meunier, tmeunier@csj-to.ca

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