Today my sister came over to my parents’ house to visit. She had her large and rambunctious puppy with her. With everything else going on in the house, we thought it would be a good idea to take a walk with the dog. We ended up taking a stroll all the way downtown and back–about a two mile walk. I think I probably needed the exercise as much as the dog.

It was a nice walk–and a nice talk. I think I’m pretty close to my sister, but living 1,100 miles apart, we don’t have a lot of “everyday time” together. I appreciated the opportunity just to take a walk and chat about nothing in particular.

So on one hand, it was a special moment–just the two of us, and a big, lumbering dog, catching up after maybe six months of not seeing each other. But at the same time, it was incredibly ordinary–just a two mile walk with a dog.

It struck me that really, so much of what I’ve written about really does ride this same line between the ordinary and extraordinary. And really all that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary is our willingness to pay attention to the moment at hand.