"What if?"

"The highest art is the art of living an ordinary life in an extraordinary manner." ~ Tibetan proverb.

I recently learned of this Tibetan proverb when a Reiki master described her life. "I'm just an ordinary person, living an ordinary life in an extraordinary way," she said.

The words resonated with me, and I've been musing about them ever since. How does one live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way? It is, after all, the way I'd like to live. More and more often, when moments of quiet contemplation interrupt the busyness of my life, I realize the nagging depth of my discontent. It's not enough for me to live an ordinary way: I want to be more and to do more.

It seems to me that most people who do great things aren't so different from me: they live in very ordinary ways - or at least, that's how they begin. They don't start from a place of being extraordinary in their circumstances -- but they have extraordinary vision, and it is that vision that moves them to live in extraordinary ways and to accomplish great things.

But vision is not enough: you can have extraordinary vision and not realize any of your dreams. Most of us never move beyond our ordinary lives. We live in ordinary ways, despite a nagging desire to be more than we are. We dream big, but we never see our deepest longings liberated.

So what moves ordinary people to do extraordinary things? And what does it look like?

I'm about to embark on a journey to find out! I'm definitely ordinary, yet I want my life to count for something. I want to live in an extraordinary way - to be a person who does extraordinary things. Let's see where the journey takes me!