Paradox of Common

My Newfoundland roots run deep. It's one of the reasons I love hearing from other Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. 

I'm reading Rex Murphy's Points of View. I've always admire his reports on The National and his writing for various publications. It's been really enjoyable to get to read so much of it at once. His insight is so sharp and he truly paints a picture with his words. 

One passage has stood out in particular early in the book:

But, at least to me, it is the day-to-day that stiches the texture of our common experience, and what is finally remarkable – there is a touch of paradox here – is not the remarkable but the common. We are not defined by the exceptional and the rare, we are grooved and coloured by a million commonplaces.

The beauty in each moment of everyday rather than that one loud memory. The way a relationship doesn't suddenly end, but slowly decays over time if not tended. The choice of being a great leader when no one is watching because it is the right thing to do. 

In the age of social media it can be really easy to get caught up in those exceptional experiences and to aggregate these into our lives. It's what happens between those Instagram stories though that leads to a joyful life. If we choose to make kindness and care part of our commonplace for ourselves and for others then our lives will be truly be as remarkable as we hope.