An encouragement for those still trying to find the miracles in the mundane.
It’s 8:32 am and you’re speed-walking to class, hot coffee in hand, tongue only slightly burnt. You put all of 3 minutes of thought into your outfit and your hair is still drying – crunchy in the cold autumn air.
These are the moments that you won’t forget about because they are simply ordinary. There is nothing remarkable or unusual about your late arrival to class or your mismatching socks. Nothing extraordinary regarding the huge sweater you’re wearing with the food stain on the left sleeve – right above your wrist. Isn’t that beautiful? This is the life you were given and you’re living it right now. It’s not perfect. It’s certainly not your Pinterest feed. It definitely isn’t aesthetic. Right? Or is it?
I think that we sometimes fall into this trap of forgetting how remarkable the mundane can really be. We confine aesthetics, enforcing the categorical and unrealistic. Even a messy aesthetic is meticulously created and artificially designed. Why do we feel as though everything needs to be clean, new, and organized to be beautiful? The color pallet on our profiles needs to be perfect, the “clean girl aesthetic” means you must go to reformers pilates and perfect the slick back, and if you claim to be into the grunge look without listening to every 80’s alt-rock album, you aren’t really into the grunge look.
These things aren’t wrong- but do they make you feel truly content? I fear that our need to present ourselves in a certain desirable or definable light tampers with the simplicity of our lives.
So how do we find beauty in the mundane? We start by acknowledging its presence. Noticing the small wonders creates a feedback loop of finding beauty and joy in all the cracks and crevices of life’s sidewalk. Search for the beauty in your morning routine and your coffee order. The small joys in studying with friends (which we all know is no studying at all). The frozen fingertips as you shuffle across campus and the nights spent watching your favorite comfort show are something to be grateful for.
Hold dear the beauty in life, find the miracles in the mundane.