Beauty in the Ordinary

To be truly ordinary means to be struck by the extraordinary. If we find life dull, it’s probably because we are dull. If we cannot see the delightful oddities of life, it probably means we are odd. If we think the world dark and bleak, it probably means we are blind, or only looking at ourselves–the true source of pride and spiritual blindness. For it is only in humility and the willingness to be small that we can see how magnificent and large this world truly is. In order to embrace and live this romance, we cannot succumb to self-love. The man turned inward merely discovers himself, and what a rotten discovery that is! To see with eyes turned outward is to discover the beauty and bigness of a world that is other than oneself: for without the Other, there can be no love, and without love, there can be no joy in this extraordinary, ordinary life.