Honor what's ordinary

I am not a person prone to self-help books or navel-gazing introspection, and I would not normally link to such a long video (about 15 minutes) but this really stuck with me, after I watched it several weeks ago via one of my favorite non-stitching blogs, Geekmom.

Brene Brown is a researcher into shame and courage, and an author of several books, which I am going to give a read, after listening to this talk of hers from last fall.

What really stuck with me was her point that because our modern society has almost an allergy to the slightest risk or vulnerability, we close ourselves off to that experience, and in effect also close ourself off to joy.  If you care about something passionately, you become vulnerable. 

"So the question becomes, how do we embrace vulnerability?
....honor what's ordinary about our lives, because that is what's truly extraordinary...we can compete with the images in the media, from the news, from the scary shows on tv, with our own images of gratitude about what's ordinary in our lives, the people we love, our kids, our family, play, our community, and nature.  These are things that happen every single day that we're so busy being afraid, we're missing these.  So that's I think, the biggest thing, to be grateful for what we have and to honor what's ordinary..."

Wow, that that hit home for me.  Not everything or everyone can be exceptional or extraordinary, and shouldn't be.  The everyday things that are, are essential.  I will try not to get so caught up in the other stuff, that I lose sight of the ordinary.