Where Did This Come From?

The last picture I could find of myself on my phone.
Thanks, Emily, for the gift!

I've been trying to avoid writing this for a long time.

A few months ago, I thought to myself: "I need some motivation in my life! I'll set a goal to write a short story." So I did.

Only then did I realize the dilemma I faced: What to write about? I looked around to see what others were writing about and soon realized that in order to write anything of value, I needed to be an expert of some sort. In other words, I needed to either have a PhD, a fantastic career, or to have gone through some sort of traumatic/significant life-changing event. 

Whelp, that's not me.

So I ditched the idea. 

But it just kept coming back to me, despite my best efforts to remind the thought that I'm no expert in anything. I'm just ordinary.

"Well, write about that," the thought pushed.

"What's there to know about being ordinary?" I replied. "Nearly everyone's done it."

"Let's find out, shall we?" the thought came back.

And so here we are.

If you're here reading this, I have no fantastic research or field experience about Mesopotamia and it's ancient civilization to share with you. I have no budding career that's brining me into the spotlight, and no life events significant enough to make it on the news (and I'd rather keep it that way).

I'm just extra ordinary.

I stay at home with my kids.

I struggle with depression.

Yesterday I ate three cookies for breakfast and then had three more.

My greatest accomplishment in the past four years was that one time I washed AND folded all of the laundry on the same day.

And as I'm trying to write this, my son is calling for me to change the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode to one that I have no idea where to find.

Really, the only thing I'm an expert on is being ordinary. But maybe since this--whatever "this" even ends out being--is coming from me rather than from some far-off stranger with their picture on the back of a book flap, it will help someone who I actually know and care about, which sounds like a pretty awesome and worth-while effort to me.

So I'm here, just writing a few thoughts that I have on what it means to be an extra ordinary saint. Emphasis on the "extra."