I'm Edelamone and this is The Slowdown.

There isn't enough praise for ordinary living.

Sure, we may gather for the holidays or celebrate weddings or significant moments of real joy.

The big winds, the markers of time.

But what about the day-to-day living?

I think we need more awards for that.

More awards for putting on our shoes and going to the office or brushing our teeth in the

morning, doing the dishes.

I was once on the subway in New York City at some ungodly hour.

It was maybe six in the morning and I had to be in the office to set up something for

a sales meeting, meet a caterer, I can't remember.

But I was surprised at how busy the subway was that early.

Folks had their kids already for school, people had lunches packed and coffee in their hands.

I remember having the overwhelming feeling of wanting to shout, I am so proud of us at

the top of my lungs.

And I was proud.

Life is like that.

You think you're just slogging along and then something reminds you that just getting

up in the morning and choosing to live is something miraculous.

I try to hold that with me, a need to hold that with me.

In today's poem, we witness the rapture that comes when you've come out the other side

of sadness, shaken off the blues and entered the world again.

...