Ordinary life is anything but ordinary when the right people share their lives with one another.
Janet’s birthday was Friday — a day that began at my favorite coffee shop with Janet, Macy and Jacob — and ended with me pushing Jacob in a shopping cart at Target while mother and daughter shopped. In the in-between moments: Macy, Janet and I biked 14 miles, Macy and Jacob decorated with cherries, Cool Whip and chocolate shavings the birthday cake I had baked, Janet opened her cards and gifts and the four of us ate a great meal at Osaka Steak House in the Quad Cities.
Oh, yeah, I also squeezed in some work, where we secured a $25,000 matching grant Friday for a fundraiser this summer, which is a very big deal for MCSA.
It was a great day in every way.
Lest anyone think I’m guilty of making our lives sound better than they really are, it’s worth pointing out things aren’t always perfect. But the imperfections aren’t the part of life on which I want to constantly focus.
Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows I lost a job three years ago and lived through the struggles everyone deals with in that predicament. I’ve written about a lot of it. Coming up on a year ago, I got divorced. That has been a part of my life I mostly haven’t felt like sharing here. And still don’t.
But the past three years have been instructive. It’s a powerful lesson to go through those types of experiences and learn you can not only survive them, but go on to experience days like yesterday. Learning that has taught me we can change the parts of our lives that make us unhappy.
By looking back today at my life three years ago, I know it can be even better three years from now — especially when I’m going to trek forward with Janet, Macy and Jacob. Life with them is anything but ordinary. Even when we are doing something ordinary like celebrating a birthday, which everyone does once a year.
Brome Hill 