Tuesday 18 April 2017

O is for Observing the Ordinary #atozchallenge

Ordinary, I like.
It has no need to impress, like the extra ordinary.

Ordinary lives in the moment; every moment.

Oh! how I love thee:
my very own ordinary.

It's just gone past ten on a sunny Tuesday.
I'm sat here, at the kitchen table, typing out a post for O.
They tumble in, all of them, one by one, my band of ordinary:

His brown eyes when he said bye and left for work.
Sweet smell of Comfort spring dew
on laundry.
Flecks of sun on paper blinds hung on windows--
watching sprigs of basil and seeds of fennel dance
in boil of water.
I add tea and milk and strain the brew.
A touch of honey.
That should do.
I have plenty to call my ordinary.
How about you?

What are your ordinary moments like?
Do they add you up or bring you down?
How often do you observe your ordinary?
*****
When I first borrowed my daughter's camera, almost four years ago, I thought I was going to 'take' pictures.
I was so wrong.
This camera has shown me to look at my ordinary with fresh eyes.
I love the way I've slowed down these days. 
At first, I slowed down to observe a shot, a frame, a picture or a portrait.
When this slowness permeated my life, I do not know.

It was our last day in Split, Croatia. I wanted to pick up a book from a shop before driving off to Dubrovnik. 
The husband was rushing ahead. 
He gets like that when he's on his mission to get from point A to point B on holiday:)
I was at a zebra crossing, looking to cross the road: left, right...hang on...
It was day 4 of the A to Z challenge and letters had been on my mind, but this was surreal.
So, I stood and saw and clicked.

"Did you see the letters crossing the road?" I asked him when I caught up at last.
"What letters?" he asked.
The letters marched on,

 posed,
(Google says this word means smart/clever/wise in Croatian. 
If you know Croatian, please enlighten me. Thank you)
 paused for traffic,
and made their way back to (no idea where)!

Observe your ordinary and you will see just how marvellous it truly is.

"Perhaps, we'll meet tomorrow with P."
I type
 with
purple stains on greedy fingers 
after harvesting oozy mulberry.


24 comments:

  1. Your ordinary moments turned out extra ordinary for 'O'. Looking forward for 'P'
    patiently :).

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  2. Great moment you got camera! Are you a blipper (a member of blipfoto.com)by any chance?

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    1. Hi Nicki. I'm not a blipper. But I'm gonna check out blipfoto tonight. Thank you for stopping by.

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  3. I love your post. Ordinary lives... every life is ordinary in the same way that no life is ordinary. I would probably have taken that picture :)
    -----
    Eva - Mail Adventures

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    1. Thank you Eva:) And I love what you've said about 'every life'.

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  4. Omigosh, I would have be grinning for days after seeing that!
    Wonderful. :-D

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  5. Those waiting for the extraordinary miss the joy of the ordinary :-) Happy A-to-Z-ing.

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    1. Wise words Ronel.
      Happy AtoZee to you too.

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  6. First of all.....lovely images, as always! Yes, you did make 'ordinary' special. We all derive comfort from the mundane and ordinary. But we hardly ever sit back and observe. Thank you for bringing it to our notice.

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    1. I need to remind myself, too -- every now and then, when I get all caught up in the unnecessary Ruchita.
      Always happy to see you here. Thank you.

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  7. Haha, I remember we were in Split on vacation when the last book of Harry Potter came out. I ran into a book shop that morning and bought the English version. They had it ready for tourists :D

    The Multicolored Diary: WTF - Weird Things in Folktales

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    1. I like visiting book shops when I'm in a new place. I loved the ones in Budapest, too.

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  8. What a keen eye you have. Ordinary moments make our lives what they are, don't they?

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    1. They sure do Sue:) Thank you for visiting.

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  9. If one is alert and aware there is extraordinary in the ordinary. Nice post!

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  10. Love the letter carriers crossing the road. I admit I am like your husband, getting from A to B directly is what I do, so I have to remind myself to slow down sometimes, and that quite often a slower more round about way is OK.

    Phillip | O is for an Octopus named Hank He’s also Orange!

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    1. I like slow...it suits me:) Thanks for stopping by.

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  11. When we slow down the ordinary has a habit of becoming extra-ordinary. i wonder is it because we actually observe that which we encounter? Great photos and poem.

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  12. Stopping to observe fascinates me when i take the time to do it. In fact, everything looks different through a camera lens, and sometimes i look through the camera just to get a new perspective.

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    Replies
    1. I get what you mean. Yes, the lens does that. Thanks for stopping by:)

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