The Magic of the Ordinary
“There is only a small window in life when everyone you love is here at the same time. One day, you’ll realise these ordinary moments were never ordinary at all. They were the rarest kind of magic”
Author unknown
For the past eleven years or so, we have gathered around the dinner table as a family every Monday night. It’s a tradition that began when my brother and sister-in-law invited the grandparents to stay for dinner after fetching the kids from school and spending the afternoon together. What began as a practical arrangement became a family ritual.
The 6:30pm Monday evening gathering has been an anchor for our family over the years. It is not something we think about, we know it happens, every week, at the same time, at the same place.
It is a gathering where anything goes… every topic, whether contentious or questionable is brought to the table. All views are welcome but if you are willing to put your thought, opinion or controversial perspective out there, you better be willing to back yourself, when challenged.
It’s a space of learning, of insight, of inspiration and of laughter as it is equally a space of roasting or teasing others and being roasted or teased in return. If you are going to dish it out, you have to be able to receive it. We tend to joke that to sit around the table you need to have a thick skin. In short, it’s never a dull moment.
The chairs around our table have witnessed, and continue to witness, change, both sorrow and joy in equal measure. Some familiar seats are no longer occupied, due to the passing of a loved one, the immigration of another or the transition of the grandchildren into a new season of life outside of their home.
On many occasions, friends and guests are welcomed, dinner is always beautifully prepared and beyond all else we gather together and await what emerges from an ordinary Monday. No matter the content of conversation or the nature of the day, the magic has always been in the consistent deliberate act of gathering.
When I read the quote above, I sent it to the family on our WhatsApp group, because it speaks to the magic of the ordinary which we can so easily take for granted because it seems as though it will always be there, yet we only have a small window in this life to experience it.
As we approach the end of another year, perhaps the invitation is to become more attentive to the ordinary. The known spaces we regularly arrive at and depart from. The familiar gatherings and seemingly mundane moments that, over time, become some of our most treasured memories and the fabric of our lives.
And maybe it’s about the ordinary magic of an unremarkable Monday night.
