On the ordinary

And letting the extraordinary take care of itself.

“Do not ask your children 
to strive for extraordinary lives…
Make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.”

— William Martin

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One bright afternoon, I’m out on our terrace, hanging freshly washed clothes on our drying rack. The sun is warm on my face, my husband José is inside playing with our nine-month-old daughter Elena, and our pale blue laundry basket is sitting at my feet. 

When I’m done, I briefly set the basket down on the living room floor on my way to the kitchen. By the time I return to the room, José has placed Elena in the basket, where she’s sitting looking rather proud of herself.

Then, as he stands over her, José gently begins to shake the basket, as if it’s a space shuttle about to be launched. He makes all sorts of sound effects to add to the excitement, before the basket leaves the ground and they’re off — zooming across the living room, expertly navigating the corner of our dining table, and finally whirling their way back again.

The whole time, Elena is beaming, and all I can do is laugh. She keeps locking eyes with me and giving me that look that says, “You cool with this, Mom? Because I’m so cool with it.” But what I’ll always remember most are her hands, each one holding onto the side of the basket as though it were a perfectly natural way to be traveling around the room.

This is why I love Jose, and why I’m grateful to be on this journey with him as new parents — because it never would have occurred to me to do something like that with Elena. I never would have looked at our laundry basket and seen a magic carpet, but he did, and we were all the happier for it. 

That tiny moment in our living room showed me that we don’t always need to be doing something creative to be creative — and that even in the most ordinary of tasks, we can sometimes find the extraordinary.

Our little explorer whirling her way across the living room.