Savouring the Ordinary

It’s not about extra special days and big exciting gestures. 

It’s not about gifts and presents, or spending money and buying things.

It’s not about huge plans, far away countries and extravagant experiences. 

It’s not about perfection, effort or always getting it right. 

It’s not about ironing, dusting or the constant quest for an empty washing basket. 

It’s about right here, right now. 

It’s about holding hands on a windy day.

It’s about crunching leaves under your feet and having snow ball fights. Splashing in puddles and paddling pools. 

It’s about telling jokes and stories, talking for hours about anything at all. 

It’s about silly photographs and funny faces, laughing together at absolutely nothing. 

It’s about spontaneous trips, unplanned adventures, exploring places you’ve been 100 times before. 

It’s about rollercoaster rides and cotton candy, car picnics and bike rides in the rain.

It’s about everything in between. 

It’s about bed time stories, stroking hair and watching as they peacefully sleep.  

It’s about the ordinary, the every day, the simple life. 

It’s about sharing time and being together, enjoying these days and creating lifelong memories. 

I’m not perfect. I don’t have a ton of cash, I can’t offer expensive holidays or huge gifts every day. 

But I have faith that what I do have to give is worth far, far more than anything money can buy. 

I have ears to listen and eyes to watch as he discovers all the amazing things around him. As he grows and develops, and becomes who he is destined to be. 

I have patience as he learns and I have energy as he gets quicker. I have strength to catch him when he falls and I am brave enough to help him try again. 

I have passion as he finds interests, and I have the freedom to nourish his curiosity and follow in any direction that may take us. 

I have love to offer him every single day, as I wrap him up in kisses and hugs. 

Most importantly I have time. I have these days; right here, right now. And whether we spend them travelling the world or sitting in our living room I know that these days will be enough. 

I know that all the memories of riding rollercoasters, the ones of staying in pyjamas all day, and everything in the middle will fill his childhood with so much love, in the same way that they have mine. 

I know that as he grows he will look back lovingly at the ordinary and the mundane, and that the days I worried about being the most boring will be the ones he remembers most fondly. 

The days where everything went wrong will be the ones he treasures most. 

Life isn’t about big events, it’s about every single day in between. It’s about savouring the ordinary, and learning to love the smaller stuff, because ultimately that’s what really matters to us all.