Being Okay With Just Being Okay

Yesterday I did not do anything extrordinary. I didn't get a paper or a book published. I didn't get a fabulous new job. I didn't blog or Tweet about changing the world. I didn't go to the gym or lose any weight. I didn't take a trip to a fabulous location. Yesterday I did not do anything extrordinary.

Here's what I did do... At 7 AM I got up, got my daughter fed, dressed and ready, then took her to school (no easy feat with a crabby kindergartener). I did a few hours of work from home via phone and laptop. I paid some bills. I picked up my daughter from school and we went over to my parent's house. I made lunch, did a load of laundry and we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa for a few hours. I coordinated getting a beautiful and most necessary dresser from a very generous friend, who's kids had outgrown it. I stopped by a local Salvation Army store to donate 2 bags of clothes, before heading over to another friend's house for a late afternoon playdate we'd arranged earlier in the week for our kids. I hadn't really planned anything for dinner, so I sent a quick text to the hubby, who picked up some pizza  for us. After dinner, checking e-mails and Facebook, and a few episodes of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", it was suddenly 8 PM, which meant bed time for my daughter. Shortly after that, my friend's husband arrived with the dresser and he and my husband got it into our house. By 9 PM I was tired, but managed to find the energy to watch a TV show I had DVRd a few days earlier. Finally, at 10 PM I went to bed, exhausted from my 15 hour long day.

Yesterday, I did not do anything extrordinary. I did the business of getting through the day. I did it with hands swollen and aching from rheumatoid arthritis and a nagging, low-level of inner anxiety and melancholy humming in my brain. I didn't do anything extrordinary, but I actually accomplished quite a lot. It's easy to forget that the seemingly mundane taks woven into the fabric of my day are what keep me and my family going. Nobody ever gets a medal or congratulations for doing what needs to be done or just making it through the day. It's easy to look around at other people and think that their lives are so much better than yours. It's easy to judge yourself by some impossible standard of "not being good enough". The truth is that we are ALL just trying to make it in this life and the expectation of having to be exceptional and perfect are simply false illusions that noone can ever live up to. Everyone has hardships to deal with in their life... Some more than others. Yesterday I did not do anything extordinary, but I was pretty damn okay. Sometimes, we have to be okay with just being okay... And that's okay!