When I began this blog back in May 2009, I named it that very night with a particular image in my head.
I had a few days earlier picked up a stray piece of junk mail that had blown down the foot path of our local supermarket and as I strolled passed I bent down next to my double stroller and scooped it up and threw it into the the rubbish bin by the door, thinking nothing of it.
An elderly lady witnessed this and came up to tell me "What a good person" I was.
That felt pretty good.
A simple act. SO mundane.
But now I'm thinking....
The reason that scenrio has stuck with me is becasue someone recognised me and praised me.
Not a bad thing, but that's not very mundane or ordinary.
To me, especially to someone like me, compliments and recognition are majorly special things.
I used to look for ways to serve people and get a bit of a thrill doing so. I'd stop and offer lifts to people walking in the rain (people I knew or knew of). There was an alcoholic mum at my child's kindergarten who walked everywhere with a terrible limp, I liked to help her out. And one time an old man pounded on my window in the supermarket car park and asked me to take him and his groceries back to his house in a sudden down pour, not that I would have said no, but I was honoured to be able to help. These things were seriously cheap thrills for me.
And so this is how my now rather cliche in the bloggers world title became. (I had never heard of Enjoying the small things or anything else similar by that stage).
Where am I going with this?
So what I've been thinking is, yeah, that's a cool way to live, BUT what I now realise is I had this underlying need or even fear if you will.
I went about life like this believing I was earning points or more spiritually talking earning blessings from God. And approval.
See where I think I had it all wrong was with the earning.
And then add to that the thriving off recognition.
Like I just said being recognised for doing things is not really mundane.
So then I had this blog about my mundane everyday life. Where people would recognise comment and compliment me on it.
And for awhile
I lived and breathed off that.
I became a mini celebrity in my own little warped head, in this fantasy world of cheap comments and flattery.
I had forgotten to live a life that was not broadcast to the world.
I felt this desire to share every little minuscule thing that I did with my kids, conversed with my husband, experienced from my God.
I want to learn to rise above the need to be approved of, (this year I may have got the balance a little wack and leaned too far the opposite way, heh!)
The mundane of life for me is about living with integrity within my home, family and work.
Being my best when others aren't watching.
Living a life that isnt continually documented purely for others to view.
Not living through a hipstamatic lens.
I had a few days earlier picked up a stray piece of junk mail that had blown down the foot path of our local supermarket and as I strolled passed I bent down next to my double stroller and scooped it up and threw it into the the rubbish bin by the door, thinking nothing of it.
An elderly lady witnessed this and came up to tell me "What a good person" I was.
That felt pretty good.
A simple act. SO mundane.
But now I'm thinking....
The reason that scenrio has stuck with me is becasue someone recognised me and praised me.
Not a bad thing, but that's not very mundane or ordinary.
To me, especially to someone like me, compliments and recognition are majorly special things.
I used to look for ways to serve people and get a bit of a thrill doing so. I'd stop and offer lifts to people walking in the rain (people I knew or knew of). There was an alcoholic mum at my child's kindergarten who walked everywhere with a terrible limp, I liked to help her out. And one time an old man pounded on my window in the supermarket car park and asked me to take him and his groceries back to his house in a sudden down pour, not that I would have said no, but I was honoured to be able to help. These things were seriously cheap thrills for me.
And so this is how my now rather cliche in the bloggers world title became. (I had never heard of Enjoying the small things or anything else similar by that stage).
Where am I going with this?
So what I've been thinking is, yeah, that's a cool way to live, BUT what I now realise is I had this underlying need or even fear if you will.
I went about life like this believing I was earning points or more spiritually talking earning blessings from God. And approval.
See where I think I had it all wrong was with the earning.
And then add to that the thriving off recognition.
Like I just said being recognised for doing things is not really mundane.
So then I had this blog about my mundane everyday life. Where people would recognise comment and compliment me on it.
And for awhile
I lived and breathed off that.
I became a mini celebrity in my own little warped head, in this fantasy world of cheap comments and flattery.
I had forgotten to live a life that was not broadcast to the world.
I felt this desire to share every little minuscule thing that I did with my kids, conversed with my husband, experienced from my God.
I want to learn to rise above the need to be approved of, (this year I may have got the balance a little wack and leaned too far the opposite way, heh!)
The mundane of life for me is about living with integrity within my home, family and work.
Being my best when others aren't watching.
Living a life that isnt continually documented purely for others to view.
Not living through a hipstamatic lens.
