Thursday, January 7, 2016

Thankful Thursday - Ordinary

"We meet no ordinary people in our lives."  C.S. Lewis.

Sometimes when I'm driving my daughter to school, we play a 'game.' I'll see a person walking, or sitting or running to catch the bus, or two or three people chatting, laughing, young, elderly or middle aged, and I ask my daughter, make up a story....tell me who they are, what they're doing, what they're thinking....and her and I are off running with one wild story after another about the ordinary people walking the streets. 

By the time I drop her off we're both laughing about how crazy or in depth our stories have spun. When I drive home, our 'game' always reminds me that there are no ordinary people. Everyone's life is woven in a living drama, peppered with good times and bad. 

It's easy to pass people on the street and not give them a second thought, but when I look at them, really look, I wonder what their life story is. 

When I run workshops, the participants are all very ordinary looking people, but when they begin to share their life journey, I am amazed at how far someone's come, the traumas they've overcome or striving to overcome, the losses that almost broke them, their incredible resilience and courage, and in spite of everything, their dreams and hopes and aspirations. 

Yep. It's true....we live on this planet with no ordinary people. 
Happy Thursday, Guys. 

5 comments:

Sandi@ Rose Chintz Cottage said...

You're right, there are no ordinary people because God made each one of us unique. Sounds you and your daughter have a lot of fun on the way to school. That's nice! Happy New Year, Nikki, and I look forward to all the nuggets of wisdom you will offer us this coming year. Have a great and inspiring weekend!

Hugs from PEI,
Sandi

Dayle ~ A Collection of Days said...

How true this is. We all have a story to tell and I encourage people to not let their story go untold.

Launna said...

I completely agree Nikki, there are no ordinary people.. some of us share our stories out loud while others are more private... we all have to deal with ups and downs... which makes us extraordinary xox

Sharon said...

Yes, how true!

I just had to share this quote from C.S. Lewis (Weight of Glory). It's long, but so perfectly pertinent to what you have so wisely recognized about people:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

GOD BLESS!

Connie said...

Such a true and thought-provoking post. Everyone has a story to tell that we are unaware of.