To Make Better the Everyday Ordinary

The New Year came with viral coughing and sneezing, flu bugs and stomach bugs.

“Can you drop by some Hot and Spicy Chinese Soup,” one son texted as he nursed his wife and daughters through the high and low fevers of a flu season.

I didn’t have to ask why – It’s something I’ve always done. When you have a cold, regardless of whether it’s a viral cold or flu cold, Hot and Spicy Chinese Soup (along with egg rolls and hot mustard sauce) just makes everything better. Except on Mondays. On Monday’s the local Chinese restaurants are closed. It is a blessing – to be invited to make “it” better.

A few days later, I made a pot of my homemade chicken noodle soup with grilled cheese sandwiches.

“Mom,” said one of the boys still at home. “Would you make me a bowl of soup?”

“You can do it just as well as I can,” I said, exasperated because, really, if you’re in college, shouldn’t you be able to make your own bowl of soup?

“But it’s just so much better when you do it,” he said – and, though I know I’m being buttered up like a good grilled cheese sandwich – when they say that (because all my sons do) it just makes being a mom that much better.

Better elevates – the everyday ordinary
Better lifts up, even if for a moment,
It progresses forward, adds shine, more goodness

Better could be the detail added to a story, a lowered temperature, it could be the lavender sprinkles on a scone, or the honey in the tea. It could be the melted butter soaked in a grilled cheese – or the buttery words across the kitchen counter.

Better could be the simple choice of a finding the goodness in a situation where goodness is hard to find or words that bring life instead of words that cut and wound.

5 Minute Mark (but please read on)

Better could be a stopping moment or the oomph that propels us just one step closer to a goal.

I have thought and thought about how to make this year better, how to lift my heart out of the shadow of loved ones suffering challenges – to lift my heart to live joy and hope, faith and grace, how to bring the light into the challenges of those battling dementia, carcinoids, breast cancer, heart valve replacements, and those who’ve lost loved ones taken too soon. I can pray – yes! But what was I to do after the Amen?

It seems like the rain and grey skies wouldn’t budge this last year. I love rainy days – but it rained so much over the summer that my porch felt moist and needed a good drying. The grey skies oppressed. This hasn’t been the kind of rainy day living I enjoy. Driving home a few weeks ago, I asked God how to shake this greyness that seemed to have soaked into my soul – how could I rid myself of it. At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds – all warmth and brightness – yellow and blue brightness. My soul responded, feeling God right there beside me, assurance flooded through me – and joy soaked up the greyness inside. Praise – that was the only way, He seemed to be telling me, that was the only way to make it better. . . . and that the only way to redeem the daily, to make it better is to praise God, to give thanks. . . . because that does add the shine to a day that needs bettering: Praise regardless of circumstance – because praise regardless of circumstance is the stuff that moves mountains. Praise remembers God’s goodness of the past and it steeps the right now in his grace. It lifts up, moves forward, adds more goodness, transforms, elevates In ways that I cannot. It’s like asking God to come in because it just makes it that much better.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.” ~ Psalm 103: 1-6

“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” Hebrews 13:15

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be  in my mouth” ~ Psalm 34:1

Take 5 Minutes out of your day, pour a cup of Wild Apple Ginger tea, and join me at Kate’s Place for 5 Minutes Friday! See what everybody else is writing about . . . or maybe join us with 5 minutes of your own writing – about the word . . . “Better.”