Prompt: Most Ordinary

Most Ordinary

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother).
1. What are your false comparisons?
2. What are your false expectations?
3. What are your false investments in a story?
 List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

1. My false comparisons are the ones that are common among women and common among competitors. I am continually looking at my body harshly and everyone is prettier, more youthful, and more graceful, or more slimmer. When I was a runner I wasn't fast enough, when I was a dancer I only every ranked third never first, when I became a mother rather than accepting my permanent body changes I was judging myself.
Oddly I try my hardest not to judge others on their appearance but I am harsh or as my husband puts it "I know to keep my mouth shut 95% of the time while my brain is doing all sorts of craziness." I think the one saving grace to the false comparison is that I do not do the "keeping up with the Joneses" thing. My comparisons are for me alone not my family, not my husband, not my child. They are perfect as they are.

2. My false expectations are that one day I will wake up and be able to do it all and if I don't I am a failure of the largest percentage. That all will see only the failure not the other parts. IT takes very special friends of mine to point out the areas where I am a success. A false expectation that I do have is that I will wake up and not be obsessive about food, worry about my body and ultimately not have the ingrained issues around a food disorder that I have had my entire life.

3. I don't think I have a false story or investment in a story. I believe my husband does. Me, I am ordinary but have extraordinary days that are to be shared and enjoyed. I am evolving slowly. I try things and sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. I try to bring what might be ordinary to me into the realm of extra ordinary or even magical to others by sharing. I've said it before but living with a 4.5 year old is amazing as simple and ordinary is more than that!