Extraordinary

 

E is for Extraordinary

 

‘Dad, I’m so excited!’ Jessica’s smile lit up the lounge room. She had jumped out of bed this morning and greeted her father with these words.

‘Morning Jess. What are you excited about?’ Joe asked her.

‘We’re going to Pluto and the moon today!’ she exclaimed, jiggling with the joy she felt.

Joe looked at her and said, ‘Okay.’

When I got up, the heat in the bedroom beginning to feel like a sauna, Jess greeted me with. ‘Hi Mum, we’re going to Pluto and the moon today!’

I smiled at my daughter, but I had concern too. I didn’t want her excited about something that we couldn’t make happen for her.

‘Jessica you know we can’t actually go to Pluto and the moon. You’ll have to go in your imagination.’

Jess’s face immediately dropped and she was silent. She really believed we could.

After breakfast Jess went into her bedroom to get dressed. She woke Melissa and instructed her big sister, ‘We’re going to Pluto and the moon today. You need to get up!’ She wasn't giving up on her dream.

Melissa bleary-eyed, stared at her sister. She smiled and remembered the conversation we’d had over the dinner table the night before.

Jess had asked, what were we doing today? As we had no specific plans, Joe said as a joke, ‘We’re going to the moon.’ Then Melissa piped in with, ‘And Pluto.’ Pluto is Melissa’s favourite planet. The discussion turned to flying on the satellite to get there and you only having 10 seconds to take photos of Pluto. After dinner, the movie Frozen was on TV. Jessica entertained us with her acting out of the entire movie, and singing all the songs with the actions.

Nothing more was said about the space mission… until this morning.

As Jessica was so hung up on going on her space trip, I thought I had to try and make it happen in some small way. No way could we ring NASA and ask them, to drop by our house, and take us into outer space. Instead we could make some playdough rockets and pretend. Jess was happy with that, thankfully. Here is her rocket and astronaut. J

 

Here she is:

Now what does this little story have to do with my blog title ‘E for Extraordinary’?
A lot in fact. In Jessica’s mind she could do this extraordinary thing - travel into outer space. She wasn’t bound by her circumstances or her limitations. You might be thinking, well she doesn’t know how far the moon is away. True, she doesn’t know exactly how far away it is, but she knows it’s a fair way. She knows you need a rocket to get there.

I googled 10 most extraordinary people in the world. Up popped a large number of sites. I began to read the names of the people on the list. To be honest, most of the people I had never heard of. People who were considered prodigies and had high IQs, and others who had achieved some type of success in life. There were lists of disabled people, others with ‘superpowers’. It was interesting because I didn’t see the people who I expected to.  I didn’t see Father Chris O’Reilly who helps homeless youth with his program ‘Youth off the Streets’; I didn’t see Rosie Batty, an advocate for domestic violence; I didn’t see the Sarah McGrath Foundation who provide Breast Care nurses; Destiny's Child who rescue girls from a life of prostitution. These and many others, who are leading extraordinary lives.

What does extraordinary mean? ‘Remarkable, beyond usual ordinary’ is what the dictionary says. If that is the definition, then everyone is capable of leading an extraordinary life. Can an ordinary person, living in the suburbs, going about their everyday existence, live an extraordinary life? Yes, of course. I believe that if you are helping others, and trying to make a positive difference in the circle you live in, then you are in a small way being extraordinary. The world does not change without people who stand up for good. Who stand up for the injustices in the world. Who stand up for the animals, the environment, and for the vulnerable people who cannot stand up for themselves. Who try to make the world a better place.

Think about one thing you can to do, but don't just think about it --- do it!

What if we were all like Jessica and believed we could?