Family Game Night: making the ordinary extraordinary

My son came from school last week and asked if we could have a family game night.

A bit surprised, I asked, “Why?”

“Because we haven’t had a family game night in a while.”

He’s right. We haven’t played a game as a family in a long time. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we played a game as a family.

Shamefully, there hasn’t been time.

Just last week Cindy and I were looking at our family’s spring calendar: Baseball and soccer games, birthday parties, fundraising galas, school functions, and work obligations.

And today, as I write this, they’re all canceled. Our busy spring just became unbusy.

Surprisingly, there is plenty of time.

At the end of February, my underground writing club, Write Club… and yes, the first two rules of Write Club are– you don’t take about Write Club, decided our writing prompt for March would be “make the ordinary extraordinary.”

Little did we know our prompt choice would be something prophetic.

Because all the big, “extraordinary” things that marked our calendars were all canceled–leaving us with just the ordinary. But isn’t most of life just that– ordinary? Amazingly ordinary.

Yes, the world’s fixed in a difficult situation. This is historic. We’re living through a pandemic. Life has been altered. Life has become so uncertain. So much has been lost.

And if anything, this moment in history teaches us to realize that we, with our big schedules, are at the mercy of some mean microscopic cells that are ignorant and unconcerned with our schedules.

Honestly, it might be the reality check we need.

Because now we’re challenged with the unfamiliar task of making ordinary moments extraordinary.

Like family game night.

Be well,

Jay

PS– I rocked family game night. I set a family Scattorgies scoring record-100 points in 3 rounds ( 9 columns).

PSS– I did something. With my school is closed for 4 weeks, teachers have been tasked to teach online. Among creating course assignments, I created the Coronavirus Book Club (CVBC) and invited my 12th grade students. There are no assignments, no extra credit, not a single test. Just people reading a book and talking about it…like people do. As of writing this, 29 students joined (30% of my students).

We are reading “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho– a book the world needs to read right now.

Via twitter, I invited Mr. Coelho to join the CVBC. He hasn’t  replied yet however he did retweet my invitation to his 15 million followers. Now I’m getting interest from people from all over the world asking if they can join the CVBC.

Are you burdened with negative feelings? Are negative feelings preventing you from achieving your goals? Your potential? A happier life?My 2020 resolution is to learn more about and practice more forgiveness. There is growing research that forgiveness is the key to a happier and healthier life. Check out my Forgiveness Journey and share with someone you think may be interested.

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