You usually see the word 'mediocrity' used in a negative way. Google quotes about it hardly ever view it as a good thing.
When I younger I had all sorts of dreams and ambitions and dreaded ending up with a 'mediocre' life, but most of that searching, yearning and chasing either ended in dust or disaster or just didn't bring the satisfaction I thought it would.
In recent years there have been a few health scares in the family, times when we have had to rush out the hospital or the care home in an emergency. There have also been a fair few deaths in the family.
As we are rushing to emergency I always find myself looking out of the car window at everyone going past, just doing normal, everyday things, having an average day, and really wishing that was me right now.
When there have been long-standing problems in life that have turned life upside down and made it tougher and more frightening than normal, it has always felt like a gift when the panic is over and 'normal' life has ensued.
When I look back on my life, the fondest memories are not the big, bold, flashy parts of my life but the everyday simple like sitting in the kitchen with my aunty and watching her bake cakes, or reading under a tree or taking the kids to café for fish and chips. Normal things.
When I dreaded being mediocre I was never satisfied with where I was or what I was doing because it was never enough. Now I see how cruel and unpredictably life can be I am happy to have a 'boring' night in front of the TV with DH in my pyjamas and not itching to be somewhere else.
Is my perspective just my reaction to sudden change a trauma? A way of curling up in my shell and playing safe? Have I gotten old and given up and become pathetically grateful? lol! Or is this me learning a bit of wisdom.
What do you think?