Wonderfully Made in an Ordinary Time

“Ordinary Time.” Acrylic painting. 36”x”48”. ©Andrea Sutrick

Respectfully, who wants to hear the tired ole’ New-Year’s-goals-speech again?

SMART goals, remember those?

Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals written to attain achievement.

Thank goodness there’s more to life than achievement and success.

What if honoring the passage of time could creatively point us towards our wonderfully made character, fruitfulness and action? In some traditions, what occurs vastly in this time outside the holidays is referred to as “ordinary time.” Don’t think mundane, rather “ordinary time” is a lived experience marked by growth and signified by the color green.

Now think, our combined holidays and vacations are only 7% of the year. Do we get it wrong… living for the down time rather than the ordinary time?

What if we lived with intention with this other 93%? What if reflection on our past and future could help tug us back into the present moment?

Pause on that... Take a breath...

As you read, in this moment… this is it. The space where we are fully alive and rich with possibility. This moment is when we make a choice. Then the next breath… another choice. Awareness for the now shifts us to growth.

Roosevelt was quoted in a speech, “In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” Historians somewhere along the way paraphrase his ideas as:

            “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Now we can enter the space of creativity. Solving the puzzle. Considering possibilities. Playing and experimenting with what you have towards making the new. Being stuck shifts to being in motion. Ordinary time becomes extraordinary time.     

After the crescendo of the holidays,

with the closure of another year,

take a deep breath…

and consider, “what can you do now, with what you have, where you are? Why wait for another new year? How might you creatively live in the ordinary time?

Ready to shift in this New Year of now? Therapy with me folds in this sense of mindful presence with creative art therapy expression and the healing benefits of EMDR. Let’s make a new start together to create your calm for clarity and change. Feel free to reach out for a free consult>>>.

You can also learn more about the work I do on the Meet Andrea page>>>.

I’m here to help, embracing this ordinary time towards the extraordinary.

Andrea Sutrick, ATR-BC, LMHC

So what about the image?

I pondered the color of green and its connection to ordinary time. With tints of white and green, brush stokes emanated from the center of the image outward. As the paint mixed, phthalo green with ultramarine and cobalt blues flirted with a darkening nightfall. Eighteen inches with arm outstretched in front of a blank canvas moved from empty to full. Green as ordinary time was birthed and full of possibility. A red stripe emerging from light became the final stroke, just a flash of the downtime.

How can a few hours shift us from the ordinary into the extraordinary? How do we slow and trust the creative process here in the now, the only time we really ever are?