I love my life.
But sometimes it gets a bit daily.
Morning routine, work routine, home routine – it can all get, well, routine.
It takes a special attentiveness to see the beauty in the daily.
Like that certain way the afternoon light falls on your living room.
Or that satisfied feeling you get when you finally have time to clean the kitchen from top to bottom.
Relationships can get daily too. The same parting and greeting each day is a comforting routine. The predictable “How was your day?” at day’s end is a connection opportunity. But in an alive relationship, sometimes you have to surprise each other.
The longer you are married, the more challenging this becomes. When you have reached a certain point in life, there’s nothing you really need or want. Besides, if you really need or want it you just go get it. Trying to buy one another gifts during this time takes some thought.
I’ve surprised my husband a few times with getting things repaired to surprise him. We have an antique book case with glass doors that the kids had long ago broken and for Father’s Day, I had the doors repaired with new glass. This was one of those projects that he might have gotten to eventually, but it was fun to surprise him.
I’m particularly hard to surprise because I can usually cross-examine one of the kids to get them to tell me what he bought me. Being married to a lawyer requires him to be both creative AND secretive.
Last Mother’s Day was lovely, but predictable. One of my favorite gifts to get is the Neutrogena brand RainBath shower gel. Between holidays and birthdays, hubby keeps me predictably supplied.
A few days after Mother’s Day, my mail-order bras arrived in the mail. I have a brand that I like and I order them through the mail a few times a year.
This year, I opened the large envelope and poured out its contents. Something extra fell out.
He had beaten me to the mailbox that day, opened the package, inserted a jewelry box, and resealed the envelope.
You don’t usually get diamond earrings with your bra order, but sometimes you do.
Sometimes in the middle of the mundane, surprising things happen.
And those things make the most average day shine.
Can you make someone’s day shine today?
