The Gift of an Ordinary Day - Katrina Kenison

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The Gift of an Ordinary Day
When I first clicked on the video above, I thought it was a tribute for a loved one whose presence we will miss, but it's actually a tribute about life - and all the ordinary events that actually make life worthwhile but is looked over due to its ordinariness.

These are the times that may annoy us such as the three in the morning wake up call by a hungry baby or a one in the morning bedtime of a temper-tantrum throwing three year old. What we have to realize, when of course we've calmed down or before we get frustrated, is that life comes in stages, and all will pass in due time - even the teen years.

I have not purchased Katrina Kenison's book, "The Gift of an Ordinary Day", but it is on my 'must-have' list. As my son is only three, I do not have the privilege yet to experience the other stages of growing up beyond the "strong-willed threes". And I'm still probably feeling that this particular part of his childhood will last forever. He will not turn a spunky four-year-old, Pre-K student, in August, he's still my "baby", my three-year old preschooler with his perpetual "why's". I can't imagine him being six and in first grade for in my mind he'll always be the couch hopping monkey turning our furniture into gyms and pretend houses.

I always tell my husband when our little one crawls into bed with us that he will not want to do that for very much longer. All that he is now, all that he does, is a phase. He will outgrow it. He will outgrow us. One day, we won't be cool to hang out with. He won't want to "listen to you, mommy", he won't want to have us read "The Cat in the Hat" over and over to him, and he won't want us to watch him do a funny dance like the Chipmunks. He'll be far too grown-up for such childish moments - and they are moments, moments for us to relish as they can disappear in a blink of an eye if we aren't wise enough to capture them to memory.

Life shouldn't be filled with regrets thus negativity should not rule our days. Whatever has passed should be water under the bridge, flowing on forth and not kept in as festering grudges. We don't have many chances to enjoy life as time will not stop or turn back for us to try again. We owe it to ourselves, and our families, to enjoy every moment of our lives as they are the gifts of an ordinary day.