Just Write {62}

About a week ago, we were at a family gathering and I was talking to my brother and sister in law. They asked about the projects I’m working on and when they asked what I speak about when I go around speaking, I said it varies. I added that it’s sometimes about blogging, but mostly it’s about writing in general, or about how I see life…and my voice trailed off when I said that last part and I felt all weird because I can’t figure out how to describe what I mean about that without sounding ridiculous.

So I said, You know, like how everything is…so…magical. 

ahem.

Well. If that doesn’t sound kind of made up or trite or silly, I don’t know what does. But maybe the simplest happy thoughts are the best kind to have. I’m not good at simple happy thoughts, but my heart is? I think? My head prefers ruminating and navel gazing and my heart keeps pulling me back out of myself and into the magic of everything. You know, grace in small things, in all things.

Yesterday I cleaned the chicken coop and my Dad helped me fill the food bins with chicken feed and the cracked corn for their winter diet. We were working on all kinds of outdoor getting-ready-for-winter types of things and I loved it. I love the Indian summer temperatures this week and basking in what feels like one last breath of fresh air, every breath.

I held our friendliest chicken and called her little lady, and scratched at her neck like she’s a puppy.

Then this morning I went to let our three girls of fowl out of their night time perch and as they flapped past me, I reached in for eggs. Every single time I can’t get over how wild it is that every day a perfect oval with a hard shell and protein inside is made by one little body, and released.

Recently I  gathered the eggs from the straw nest and put them in my pockets so I could clean up the yard a little bit before going in. I forgot about the magic in my coat and ended up smashing two of them but I didn’t know it until I came inside and tried to put my hands in my pockets. I felt the gooey ooze and pulled my hands free to see yolk and the clear slipperiness of what could have been whites if they had made it to a pan. This was a little sad (and annoying, to have so much goo in my pockets).

I got over it quickly though, because that’s one of the best things about trying to keep your eyes open to all the magical graces. You can break a thousand magic eggs and turn around only to be confronted with more magic.

We breathe in rare things like a few days of Indian summer before winter sets in, so earnestly. It’s not as easy to keep seeing every mundane and repetitive thing as magic but they’re really just as life-giving.

Sometimes the only way we remember that is when we break something.

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This is the 62nd installment of Just Write, an exercise in free writing your ordinary and extraordinary moments. {Please see the details here.} I would love to read your freely written words so join me and link up below. You can add the url of your post at any time. Just be sure it’s a link to your Just Write post, not to your main page, and please don’t link to posts that are not written in the spirit of capturing moments–like lists or sponsored posts. Then please link back to this post in your post so people know where to go if they’d like to join in. (Any links not following those two guidelines will be deleted.)

Also. Please take a moment to visit someone else who has linked up! It’s a really good way to meet new writers and get inspired by the meaning behind their moments. Word? Thank you!