Small Success: The Grace of Ordinariness

I spent the evening looking up Spanish dance songs from 1950-1990 with my daughter. I hadn’t planned to, as I’d promised a younger child she could have a bath, which didn’t happen because finding the proper appropriate songs (five fast and five slow, and from five different countries to boot) took longer than planned.

The evening drifted on, with the preparing of a second dinner, and talking down of my oldest upset with a bill he received from a visit to the emergency room, and trying to get through the last of four papers to grade. The day kept being interrupted by other immediate needs, some emotional, some responsible, some ordinary, some not. In an attempt to recapture something of the evening, I summoned two who were awake to pray with me the Divine Mercy Chaplet. One did. The other danced to Korean pop but helped in the kitchen. The day wasn’t transformed, but I felt the grace of ordinariness, which includes the hard and the soft, the difficult and the easy, the peaceful and the frustrated. Maybe I’d been listening to too many soft romantic and hard salsa songs in a row, such that my brain kept veering in ups and downs. When we finished up the evening, and I’d turned off lights, I could hear one of my kids singing – I think one of the songs we’d picked for the Spanish playlist assignment. There were many tasks looming for the next day, but some of the peace returned to me from the day. I could check off: prayed with two of the kids I don’t get to usually pray with … and that’s a small success that makes any day good. Hope your week is filled with little moments of grace, prayer and peace. Happy Small Success Thursday.