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The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

 

Some words simply beg you to study them.  Look at the word "extraordinary."   Most words relate in some way to their roots, prefixes, suffixes - their parts.   But "extraordinary?"  We think of extraordinary as reflecting that which is remarkable, exceptional, noteworthy, singular, rare.   Yet the parts of the word invite the opposite:  extra-ordinary.   Which to me sounds as if we're looking for things which are exceptionally ordinary... extremely commonplace... notably unexceptional.   

The English language strikes again.   Defying logic.  Boggling the mind.  

Just to be difficult, can we study the parts of the word "extra-ordinary" and still find the extraordinary?   (I know, I know, I'm confusing even myself.)   What if we could find a way to perceive the extremely commonplace as being that which is noteworthy and remarkable?

Marigold Wellington said:

“I live to enjoy life by the littlest things, feeling the grass between my toes, breathing fresh air, watching the wind sway the trees, enjoying the company of loved ones, a deep conversation, getting lost in a good book, going for a walk in nature, watching my kids grow up. Just the feeling itself of being alive, the absolute amazing fact that we are here right now, breathing, thinking, doing.”

Marigold saw the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Can we slow down enough to be swept away in rapture at the sight of a blade of grass or by the clouds drifting overhead?

In The Radiance Sutras, Lorin Roche writes that the yogic property of "Ghata" speaks to being intensely occupied or busy with something. Roche explains that there is a certain whimsical or childlike and playful property involved when we practice Ghata. We can consider something that is commonplace, like a pitcher, and imagine that "the pitcher even remembers the earth it was formed from and knows a thing or two about transformation."   Roche writes, "When we look at the world in this way, it is as if we receive a transmission of secret knowledge from each little object in the world."

It strikes me that we can learn to experience the ordinary as extraordinary.   

Doesn't that make life magical?  Can we allow ourselves to fall in love with a leaf, feel our heart sing as we watch a bird take flight, or become mesmerized by watching a baby breathing?  What would our lives be like if we practiced Ghata?   What if we could experience the ordinary as extraordinary?

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Location: Wycombe, PA 18980, USA

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