Wednesday Wonder

“We’re so used to the wonder that is a day that we call it ordinary. Perhaps reminding ourselves of what an extraordinary thing it is to have a day – a day where anything can happen – is a better goal than trying to optimize and render it perfect.”
(‘I Didn’t Do the Things Today,’ by Madeleine Dore)

‘Having a day.’ That phrase gets used in a much more negative way than I think the author of the above wants us to use it. We usually use it to express a frustrating or overwhelming or simply not so great day.

We all go through times when we are ‘having a day.’ Sometimes it extends to ‘having a week.’ We all go through times when things just seem to be coming at us in ways that make us feel like life is difficult or that we are having difficulty living the life we have.

I personally struggle with my days being fully optimized and rendered perfect. Not that they are ever either of those things, but so often I try to make them those things. Of course, no matter what we get done on a to-do list or how well a day may go, how much we may get done, how great it may be, we can look at it and say we did not fully optimize our time and it was far from perfect.

But what does fully optimized and perfect look like? I suspect it looks differently for different people. When we compare the days of our vacations with the days we are at work or in our usual routines, they may feel more optimized and perfect.

While on vacation, if I get a large part of a book read, some good food and nap, that was a good day. In fact, if it is done sitting at my sister’s cottage looking out at the water, I would deem that a perfect day. Why? Why do we set ourselves these ideals?

That word perfection often trips us up. Have you ever read the creation stories in Genesis? (And yes, there are two – read chapters 1 & 2 if you want to see them) God does not deem things perfect at the end of each day. “And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1 – multiple verses) God saw that it was very good on the sixth day. But notice, God never declares it perfect. If God didn’t think the days of creation were perfect, why do we feel our days need to be perfect?

The expectation of perfect is bad enough, but then we add on the idea of a day being fully optimized, and it gets even worse. Did you use every minute of the day productively? Work places often expect this. If you are not actively working you are wasting time. The definition of work is not always consistent either.

I am thankful, and sometimes wonder at, the fact that as an avid reader, my work involves a fair amount of reading. Yes, I am working hard while sitting reading a book. Some books, are of course, better ‘work’ books than others, but given how often I draw inspiration for this offering of thoughts from random books I happen to be reading at home, even defining a work book can get fuzzy.

I wonder what it would be like if we all stopped trying to optimize our time, make it productive, and looked to find perfection in our days. What if we all stopped what we were doing once a day and day dreamed a little about the world God made? The good world God made and our place in it.

That might take a day from good to awesome, still not perfect, but awesome. Our days might be more optimized and feel more like perfection if we just stopped seeking those very things. If we focused, even briefly, each day, on the wonders of God, creation and faith, how might it elevate our days?

As we move deeper into the fall season, creation is changing. Don’t miss the changes. Don’t let the days, glorious as they can be, pass you by. A perfect day, well, an awesome day at least, might be right there in the midst of the quiet stopping and stilling of heart and mind.

May you have a blessedly awesome day.