Embrace the Mundane

It's just another day

Slipping into stockings, stepping into shoes

Dipping in the pocket of her raincoat

It's just another day   ~ Paul McCartney, "Another Day"

If you're holding heaven, then spread it around

There's hungry hands reaching up here from the ground

Move over and share the high ground where you stood
So heavenly minded, you're no earthly good    ~ Johnny Cash, "No Earthly Good"

Earlier this week I heard a podcast interview (The Right Kind Of Crazy) with Adam Steltzner a NASA engineer who helped develop and land the Mars Rover.  One of the things Stelzner shared was the importance of embracing the mundane of one's work and life.  Even landing a rover on Mars is not all adrenalin and cheers.  Actually the process took (and continues to take) years of day to day tedious work by many people.  

Our culture of got-to-have-it-now information and entertainment creates the illusion that we should be doing or being something exciting and extraordinary all the time.  The Internet even allows us to enter this illusion by allowing us to continuously share our "exciting" lives with others via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

The truth is the majority of our lives are mundane.  However I want to suggest that instead of mundane being ho-hum and boring, we recapture the word's original sense, meaning "of this world, earthly," as opposed to other-worldly and heavenly.   Actually by embracing the mundane and becoming aware of each and every moment of our lives is an amazing thing.  Just "being here" and being aware of being here is truly wonder-filled and miraculous.

So, the next time you think your life is ho-hum or boring, think of it as mundane - grounded in an amazing process of existence and awareness that is extraordinarily ordinary.  Maybe this is what the Psalmist says with, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." 

Have a mundane day!