The Extraordinarily Ordinary

I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock.

6 o’clock. Up before the sun and before the quiet fades.

My favourite time of the day. Alone with my thoughts.

I hear the furnace rumble. Turning on at the programmed time.

There is no other sound in the house. As close to quiet as I will hear today.

The hour passes quickly. I hear the sounds upstairs.

6 feet pitter-patter on the floor. Three voices boom through the air.

Filling the space that had just been padded with quiet.

The laughter. The screaming.

It fills our house with life. With love and with joy.

With space-filling noise.

Looking in through our window there is nothing extraordinary about us.

Nothing that really makes us stand out.

But this life is extraordinary.

The doubts that this life would ever happen. The noise that used to fill my head.

11 lives lost. Children that could have been but never were.

The sounds of grief and pain. The noise that still fills my head.

Noise that no one on the outside can hear. Until I have strength to make noise.

So while we may look like an ordinary Canadian family, living an ordinary life.

Our extraordinary circumstances, the unique lessons we have learned

Allow us to hear the beauty in everyday noise. In everyday chaos.

The indescribable bliss that this extraordinarily ordinary life is mine.

*******

This is my application to Today’s Parent.com‘s call for new bloggers and new Canadian voices. Three posts that I am also very proud to share with them are:  My Eyes are Begging to Sleep, Breastfeeding Advocacy vs Formula Bashing & Top Ten Twitter Users You Don’t Want to Be