The Beauty Of Ordinary Days

So my mom has this little spot in her garden where she grows pepper plants. I’ve noticed that she adores these pepper plants so much that tending to them has become part of her daily routine. Every morning, when she wakes up, the first thing my mom checks on are these peppers. She will water them, check the soil, and look out for pests that might try to destroy the leaves. I remember her having an argument with my dad because he complained she was giving too much attention to the plants than she was giving him. That aside, the one thing that struck me about the whole process of tending to these plants was that she was never in a haste with them. My mom practiced slow mornings more often with those peppers and she was never tired of it. It had simply become what she did each day.

Weeks later, on one of my visits home, I noticed that the pepper plants she had been quietly tending had bloomed and were heavy with bright pepper fruits. I was astonished that her hard work paid off because the way the leaves looked too big at some point due to fertilizer, I thought it wouldn’t yield anything. What mostly struck me was her statement the day I saw them blooming. She chuckled and said “see what started as tiny green stems. They’re now fruitful.” I could see the excitement in her eyes so I nodded in confirmation. All of that happened not because of a dramatic miracle, but because of consistent, ordinary care.

When little things like that happen, I look at them with the lens of life because that is exactly how it works. We often look for sudden breakthroughs or big moments to validate our efforts, but the truth is, extraordinary results are born in the quiet of ordinary days. The success you admire in others is rarely about one big day, it’s the sum of many small, faithful ones.

I also realize that a writer who finishes a book does it by showing up to write a few pages daily. The person who gets fit didn’t change overnight; they simply just kept choosing healthy meals and regular walks. Just like my mom’s peppers, growth happens little by little, until one day, the results can no longer be hidden.

That said, if your life feels slow right now, if your dreams feel buried in the soil, don’t lose heart. Just keep tending to them. Silence the voices that say not to keep going. Keep watering with small acts of discipline, faith and patience. The fruits will come, may not be all at once, but right on time, they will show up bright and colorful.

Embrace your ordinary days. They are secretly building your extraordinary future.

XoXo🌸

Images are mine.