Mundane

​As a teenager I went through what must be the usual teenage angst.    I had questions.  Why am I here?  What is the meaning of life?  I have satisfied myself on a number of fronts, but today I was reminded of something not so big but with huge consequences.  It was a moment over 40 years ago.
I had questions concerning the seeming futility of it all.   So much of what I had to do was everyday stuff.  Like hanging out the washing.  Going to school.  Housework.  That did not seem significant.  I had seemingly more important things to do!
Yet in hindsight I am so pleased for the lessons such things taught me.  So often it seems the mundane could be done without, yet I can gain so much from it if I am ready to receive it.
I did not say as Samuelssonn said, “Even just a few spices or ethnic condiments that you can keep in your pantry can turn your mundane dishes into a culinary masterpiece.”  Not being a cook, I will take his word for that.
A person lifting weights does not start with their goal.  They work up to their goal.  I must admit even the bar for holding the weights I found challenging.   Yet achievement is incremental.  I can only go on to bigger and better things when I have mastered the lessor things.
I may have thought housework was inconsequential, yet I gained so much from it.  Still do.  Seems that housework is a lifelong thing.  I grew from it.  I got better at it.  I learned life is not just about living for myself – it’s a team thing.  I knew satisfaction.  I learned the right and wrong way of going about things.  I learned to not let feelings rule.
There were big moments, but most of life was not mainly big moments.  Some big moments I would not swap for anything.  Others I would not choose, but they happened.  But what I gleaned from the mundane, I could apply to the big moments, and they helped.
Maybe putting out the rubbish is not an earth-shattering moment.  Maybe my washing up does not change the world.  But both things can change me.  Hopefully for the better.  I always have a choice.  Sometimes I do not want to do it.  Sometimes it seems it would be easier to let it go. Yet in doing so, I miss out on the good stuff for me and let others down.
Not wanting to do something is for me like a, “welcome to the human race” moment.  Yet that is the exception rather than the rule.  Sometimes I need help.  For me there are few things worse than being depended upon and proving to be undependable.  It is important to more than me I get the help I need.
Merril is away at the moment.  She normally feeds the birds and the worms.  That is my job for now.  It may be mundane, but it matters.  Birds and worms are not human but all lives matter, and what is mundane to me can be a big moment for something or someone else.