{"id":3724,"date":"2012-05-07T15:10:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T13:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.com\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2012-05-07T15:10:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T13:10:51","slug":"ordinary-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/?p=3724","title":{"rendered":"Ordinary days"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is much to be said about having an ordinary life. Ordinary in the sense of balanced, not disastrous, not crazy successful. Just one day at a time of comfortable normality. Days like today I work, exercise, do some housework, cook, shop, maybe even sew or knit a little. It’s undramatic. A pottering sort of life.<\/p>\n

I have come to realize that the pattern of ordinary days brings contentment. Simplifying those days and eradicating the hectic as much as possible gives me the time and space to be happy. Not a wild dancing on the table happiness. But a warm deep uncomplicated acceptance that this is my life and I like it how it is. Maybe difficult times in the past help me to appreciate what I have. I know from experience that there will be difficulties ahead, with health, aging parents or just generally with things beyond our control going horribly wrong. Somehow that knowledge means that I appreciate more the days when things just carry on and are undramatic and fairly predictable.<\/p>\n

Have I achieved all that I set out to achieve in my life? I still have dreams (writing a novel, remember?), but they are mostly fairly achievable with a bit of work. No more pie in the sky aspirations. Many of the dreams that I had when I was younger have been dumped along the way. I don’t want to run a major corporation or compete in the Olympics. I’d just like to stay healthy and be able to raise my kids to be civilized balanced and happy people. With ordinary lives….<\/p>\n

I almost feel sorry for people who really do believe they can do it all and have it all. You can’t, you know. Someone always pays.<\/p>\n

My life is unspectacular. I’m lucky enough to live somewhere very beautiful, but my wants and needs are modest and above all I value having time for the things that are important to me and my family. Right now I’m investing a lot of time working with my son who sometimes finds school pretty tough. \u00a0I’m so glad that I can be there for him when he needs me. I can’t imagine what would happen if I wasn’t here. Maybe one of his sisters would step into my shoes, but that would be expecting a lot from them.<\/p>\n

I realize that I am very, very lucky because I’ve been able to work freelance from home for years – so I’m always here when I’m needed. And hopefully not too stressed. That doesn’t work for everyone I know and I do appreciate it, believe me. Also I’m happy in my own company, so being home all day doesn’t mean I’m climbing the walls. But I did have to make changes to get to where I am, and I did have to swallow some pride.<\/p>\n

I think it was worth it.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot to be said for ordinary days.<\/p>\n

Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is much to be said about having an ordinary life. Ordinary in the sense of balanced, not disastrous, not crazy successful. Just one day at a time of comfortable normality. Days like today I work, exercise, do some housework, cook, shop, maybe even sew or knit a little. It’s undramatic. A pottering sort of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQtrc-Y4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3726,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions\/3726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}