ABSTRACT THURSDAY - MUNDANE

Mundane : characterised by the practical and ordinary 

I guess if you saw this object without any fartnarkling, you might think it was practical, not terribly interesting and quite ordinary, but having played around with the KaleidaCam app on my iPhone, I was happy that it looked much better as an abstract, so I wondered if it actually fitted the brief for today’s Abstract Thursday challenge.

Then again, having just looked at the words of the challenge by Ingeborg, she says, “The optional theme for this coming Thursday is 'mundane', make an abstract of something which is common, either inside or outside the house.”  She doesn’t say it has to BE ordinary and not interesting, so that’s fine!

To me this could be a beautiful stained glass window or looking up into the ornately painted roof of a Church - but of course, it’s neither of those.  In fact, it is the wok burner on my new gas hob, which is lit and although mundane in real life, once it’s lit, it takes on a whole new identity.

Perhaps that’s something like us in our lives.  Maybe we see the daily grind of life as something mundane and ordinary - things like going to work, doing housework or cooking, looking after grandchildren, taking the children to school, and doing the same things day after day.  However, if we think of all those we impact by what we do, where we go, what we say and how we say it, life can take on a whole new meaning.

Today, I had two friends round for lunch, one being Mindful_life, a Blip friend - so a sort of Blipmeet - and the other a friend from Church, neither of whom had met each other before, but we all got on very well together.  

We had a very simple meal of soup and rolls, but the soup was made with love and hopefully shared with love as well and we didn’t stop chatting for almost three hours.  I put two little hearts on each of our plates - to show them how much I appreciated them being there with me and also as a reminder to me that I need to show love to myself.

We actually shared many thoughts about mindfulness, which is something that Mindful_life is very passionate about and teaches in her workplace, and the other friend is organising a Mindfulness Day at the end of March, so it was good that they could meet to discuss something of interest to both of them, and also to me.

Looking at the photograph again, it struck me that whatever happens in our lives can radiate outwards and have an affect on and influence many people for good if we so choose.  Of course, it can also have the opposite effect but if we want to make this world a better and kinder place, I hope that we would choose to do the former.

“When we focus our energy towards constructing 
     a passionate, meaningful life, 
          we are tossing a pebble into the world, 
               creating a beautiful ripple effect of inspiration. 
When one person follows a dream, 
     tries something new or takes a daring leap, 
          everyone nearby feels that energy, 
               and before too long they are making their own 
                    daring leaps and inspiring yet another circle.”
Christine Mason Miller