Image by the Associated Press
Glory days are few and far between, aren't they?
The days we will never forget--proposals, babies, weddings, new jobs, dreams coming true, vacations of a lifetime. All good stuff.
But regular days make up the bulk of our lives, and sometimes that's a hard reality to deal with.
It cracks me up when readers write that my life sounds so adventurous--our family fights injustice, travels around the world, makes a difference.
But the truth about making a difference is that for the most part it looks a lot like regular life.
Without a doubt there have been incredible moments here in the Philippines: getting to go to the Round Home and celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary quickly come to mind.
But there's also been a whole lotta regular--most of it, in fact. And regular is incredible, it's life, it's amazing when we let it be.
The past few days regular has not felt quite so amazing, though, because we are quite literally under water. Manila has had record amounts of rainfall in the past four days--more than a month's worth of rain in a day. And then more. Over 60% of the city flooded. Water in some parts of the city up to your neck.
We happen to be in a higher area where this has been an inconvenience, nothing more. Which is what I keep reminding myself in pep talks each morning as a long day full of regular--full of laundry, and cooped up kids, and juggling work schedules stare me in the face.
You're probably not literally underwater, but you know exactly the type of days I mean.
And the way we get through these days is simply to get. through. them.
We do what must be done. We look for and capture the joy that's always there, even if hidden. We make time for creativity even when there's a whole host of other online and offline to-do's clamoring for our attention. That's what I'm doing now by choosing to write this post and ignore everything else.
When we choose to embrace the regular, it enables us to climb our way out from underwater.
One diaper change, one washed dish at a time, we rise to the top...and just keep swimming.
"Saints are sinners who kept on going."
~ Roberth Louis Stevenson
Would you consider a gift for the girls in the Round Home? Such crazy goodness--we are 75% of the way toward paying for a whole year of their education!
Details here:
