New word: prosaic

I keep hearing and reading this word everywhere... I had no idea what it meant until I finally just looked it up. There is something about this word that I love.


pro⋅sa⋅ic  [proh-zey-ik]

–adjective
1. commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative: a prosaic mind.
2. of or having the character or form of prose rather than poetry.

“Cloaked in their very ordinariness, the prosaic events that truly shape our lives–escape our notice... The infinitely numerous and apparently inconsequential ordinary ones, which taken together, are far more effective and significant.”

-Gary Saul Morson

There is this new blog I found that focuses only on focusing on the small things in life. The "prosaic events" of our lives.

Seeing the Everyday

Another example of a post from this blog is: “The domestic joys, the daily housework or business, the building of houses–they are not phantasms . . . they have weight and form and location.” Walt Whitman

"Live your life with enthusiasm, and the prosaic becomes the profound. The fire within snuffs out that prosaic, problematic and persistent low altitude of life, and we begin to soar."

It reminds me a little of Elder Ballard's talk in April 2008 General Conference. He is talking to the mothers and wives in the Church... "prosaic" events don't just have to do with mothers and wives, I just thought this was a good example of what it means to see the little things in our everyday lives.

Elder Ballard recounts his experience: "As a young father, I learned the demanding role of motherhood. I served as a counselor and then as bishop for a period of 10 years. During that time we were blessed with six of our seven children. Barbara was often worn-out by the time I got home Sunday evening. She tried to explain what it was like to sit on the back row in sacrament meeting with our young family. Then the day came that I was released. After sitting on the stand for 10 years, I was now sitting with my family on the back row.
The ward’s singing mothers’ chorus was providing the music, and I found myself sitting alone with our six children. I have never been so busy in my whole life. I had the hand puppets going on both hands, and that wasn’t working too well. The Cheerios got away from me, and that was embarrassing. The coloring books didn’t seem to entertain as well as they should."

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: 'The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make... I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.'"

Appreciate the prosaic moments in life.