even the most mundane moments…

This poem is a beautiful gift from David Whyte, particularly in the time of COVID when disappointment sits not too far away, illness lurks and disconnections with others may multiply. So we turn to that part of ourselves that wants more than an ordinary life. We rest there for a wee while. Disappointment visits when we want something we cannot have, or something doesn’t turn out as we imagined it. But if we turn to Jeff Vandermeer, we find an answer.

Vandermeer, in his impressive book Wonderbook ( 2013) tells us that

“even the most mundane moments of our existence can be inhabited by hidden complexity and with wonder” (p. xi).

Right now, I am sitting in an ordinary chair on an ordinary Queensland verandah. I am drinking a hot cup of ordinary tea...I stop and take a moment. Thoughts from the past. Sitting with my mother having a cup of tea after a show. Sharing tea with friends. Healing tea. Relational tea. Taste the tea.

And my dogs are here, lying on the floor.

The sun is a little too warm as it pours in through the verandah windows…

These are ordinary moments and yet if I take Vandermeer’s advice, it is in the ordinary that lies the extraordinary. And it is in the playful moments that we access this.

“The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, which belongs also to the child, and as such it appears to be inconsistent with the principle of serious work. but without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth” (Jung)

So, with this awareness in mind, the gifts of the day tumble in; acknowledging my need for solace, and at the same time sharpening my ability to see any perceived mundaneness. I consciously commit to inviting play into my ordinary moments so that I am transported into the extraordinary.