• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Connect
  • Donate
  • Join
  • Login
Story Circle Network Logo

Story Circle

by, for, and about women

  • Home
  • Events
    • Spain Writing Trip
    • Members in the News
    • Opportunities
  • Classes
    • Online Classes
    • Webinars
    • Enroll
    • Propose a Class
    • Propose a Webinar
  • Book Reviews
    • Story Circle Book Reviews
    • For Authors & Publishers
    • Author Interviews
    • For Reviewers
    • Review Team
  • Publications
    • SCN Journal
    • Our Substack
      • True Words from Real Women
      • StoryCraft: Writers Write About Writing
      • Submit a post
    • Real Women Write anthology
      • 2024 Anthology
    • Member Library
    • Story Circle Books
    • Flash newsletter
  • Book Awards
    • Sarton & Gilda
    • Guidelines
    • Sarton Application
    • Gilda Application
    • Past SCN Book Award Winners
  • Contests
    • The Story Circle LifeWriting Competition
    • The Story CIrcle Poetry Competition
    • The Story Circle Online Writing Competition
  • Resources
    • Circles Program
    • Roundtables
    • Opportunities
    • Member Library
    • Media
  • About
    • About SCN
    • Member Benefits

June 15 – Ordinary Time

June 15, 2020 by Linda Hoye 3 Comments

To write a few words about an ordinary day in my life doesn’t seem like too big of a task and yet now, as never before in the span of my lifetime, there are no ordinary days.

Yesterday I paused at the door to a coffee shop before I entered—it was to be the first time I entered such an establishment in three months—and for a split-second, I felt a catch in my stomach. It wasn’t fear, that sensation in my body, it was more a manifestation of the slow burn that has been fed in recent months by news reports and quiet conversations. All is not as it was.

And yet, despite face masks worn by staff inside, lines on the floor to indicate acceptable social distancing, and about half the number of tables, the important things remained.

The coffee was good. I spread whipped butter on a slice of banana bread, and it was good. But, best of all, the conversation between friends was comfortable and very, very good.

We joked because it had been so long since we were able to meet.

“I was going to wear a red carnation so you’d know who I was.”

We laughed, uncomfortable at first because we were still adjusting to life in the Twilight Zone, but the moment passed and we sat and sipped and talked and laughed and before long it was as if no time had passed between visits at all.

Man, it felt good. And ordinary.

We talked about “flattening the curve” and “social distancing” and wondered about the reason behind the shortage of yeast and flour. We caught one another up on our families, danced lightly around some topics as we felt one another out, forgetting, for a moment, what it’s like to talk to someone with whom the relationship is more important than agreement on every single jot and tittle.

Then we remembered.

And man, it felt good. And extraordinary.

 

# # #

 

Since 2011, One Woman’s Day has made space for telling stories about our ordinary days—days made extraordinary upon closer examination. Through writing and sharing and reading stories we’ve come to understand something about the lives of women. Our experiences are different but, as Maya Angelou taught us: “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Today I want to acknowledge, and thank, Kalí Rourke for her work as One Woman’s Day coordinator. Under her guidance, storytelling has continued and community has strengthened. Kalí is stepping away to pursue other opportunities and I’m stepping back into the role of blog coordinator. I look forward to having a front-row seat to your stories again.

Thank you Kalí, and all of you who continue to share the stories about your ordinary and extraordinary days. Here’s to many more years of storytelling here at One Woman’s Day!

 

Linda Hoye lives in her hometown in Saskatchewan, Canada, with her husband and their doted-upon Yorkshire Terrier. She is the author of The Presence of Absence: A Story About Busyness, Brokenness, and Being Beloved and Two Hearts: An Adoptee’s Journey Through Grief to Gratitude and Living Liminal: A Slice of Pandemic Life. Find her online at www.lindahoye.com where she ponders ordinary days and the thin places where faith intersects.

Filed Under: Linda Hoye, True Words from Real Women Tagged With: Pandemic

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jeanne Guy says

    June 16, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    Linda – this was an amazing read. I could feel the moment, in its extraordinary ordinariness, and its ordinary extraordinariness. Thank you. You will undoubtedly capture the feelings of many of us who read this.

    Reply
    • Linda Hoye says

      June 16, 2020 at 3:47 pm

      Thanks so much, Jeanne!

      Reply
  2. Mary Jo Doig says

    June 18, 2020 at 11:15 am

    As Jeanne says, I felt right there with you,starting with the twinge of entering a store, the first in three months, I haven’t done that yet. What I especially like about this piece is that you so clearly showed us both sides of the coin – the ordinariness and extraordinariness — which I’ll bet we’ll all feel when we once again enter an establishment for the first time again. Thanks!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

hoye-orig

This blog is coordinated by author, photographer, and gardener Linda Hoye. Find her at A Slice of Life.

Subscribe

Get new posts in your inbox!
Loading

Archives

2009-2019 Archives

This blog is written by Story Circle members.


Not a member? Go here to join.

Contributors

  • Amber Lea Starfire
    • February 1 - What Happens When You Write 20 Minutes a Day?
  • Ariela Zucker - View Blog
    • To Walk With Stability
    • Not Doing is a Form of Doing
  • Carol Newman
    • June 26 - Cascade
    • June 5 - Trains, Planes, and Automobiles
  • blatter.carol
    • I Met Nurse Ratched
    • November 8 - My Mother
  • Barbara Scott - View Blog
    • February 12 - LOL Before Divorce
  • christinamwells - View Blog
    • May 31 - The Hairbrush
  • Christine Hassing - View Blog
    • December 20 - Opening
  • Carrie Steckl - View Blog
    • April 4 - Let’s Love the Good in Others
    • Five Minutes on Sundays
  • debradolan1958
    • Wedding Dress Whim
    • March 13 - Museum of Broken Relationships
  • Diane
    • Walking Through Fear
  • Doris Clark - View Blog
    • May 24 - Dad's Home Again
  • Dorothy Preston - View Blog
    • December 6 - The Rutted Path
    • August 23 - Ghosts of Rejection
  • Lisa Droz - View Blog
    • July 27 - The Seat Next to Me
    • June 29 - Pay Dirt
  • Girly
    • November 2 - A Morning
  • Heidi Schwab-Wilhelmi
    • November 22 - Piano Days
  • Judy - View Blog
    • December 12 - Numb and Puzzling Grief
  • Jeanne Guy - View Blog
    • July 20 - Under Water
  • Jeanette
    • A Clouded Mind
  • Janice Airhart - View Blog
    • October 19 - The Broadmoor
  • Joanne Martin
    • April 12 - The Last Time
    • November 2 - Helping Hands
  • JSchecterZeeb
    • D-Day June 6, 1944
  • Kali - View Blog
    • March 29 - When Life Hands You . . .
    • May 10 - A Newfound Friend
  • B. Lynn Goodwin - View Blog
    • August 3 - Notes From an Exceptional Terrier
  • Linda Hoye - View Blog
    • We've Moved
    • September 12 - Just Lily and Me
  • Len Leatherwood
    • July 6 - Love, Color, and a Bit of Surprise
  • LWatt - View Blog
    • October 18 - In-Between
    • January 31 - Hail Oh, Hail
  • Marian Beaman - View Blog
    • You Found Your Glasses Where?
    • June 14 - Right Thing Too Late
  • Marilea Rabasa - View Blog
    • Walking Through Cancer - Part 13
    • Walking Through Cancer - Part 12
  • marthaslavin - View Blog
    • December 30 - Unfinished Year 2020
  • Michele Kwasniewski
    • November 29 - Hanging With The Big Dogs
    • May 6 - Happy Birthday, Mom
  • Melanie
    • May 18 - Infusing Hope
  • Monique - View Blog
    • February 7 - The Answer
  • Nancy Oelklaus - View Blog
    • September 6 - Life Goes On
  • Lisa Hacker
    • August 30 -The Great Book Purge
  • repak.t
    • Switching Creative Gears
  • Sara Etgen-Baker
    • Talking Aprons
    • You Had Me At Pumpkin Spice
  • simonandrea - View Blog
    • February 22 - Words Are My Life
  • srick18153 - View Blog
    • April 2 - Sarah and Wally Go to Space Camp
  • Story Circle Network - View Blog
    • April 19 - My Mother's Kitchen
  • Suzanne Adam - View Blog
    • July 13 - COVID Roller Coaster
  • suzy beal
    • April 26 - The Culling Year
    • January 18 - Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
  • Wentlin
    • August 24 - Uncommon
    • July 6 - An Exercise in Being Human

Footer

Story Circle Network Logo
  • Home
  • About
  • Classes
  • Publications
  • Book Reviews
  • Growing Together
  • Connect
  • Donate
  • Join
  • Login

Copyright 1997 - 2025  Story Circle Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy