PEBBLE
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
~John O’Donahue, shared by Jean in Maple Grove, MN
BOULDER
Every moment there are a million miracles happening around you:
a flower blossoming, a bird tweeting,
a bee humming, a raindrop falling,
a snowflake wafting along
the clear evening air.
There is magic everywhere.
If you learn how to live it,
life is nothing short of a daily miracle.
~Sadhguru, shared by Pablo in California via James Clear
PONDER
These quotes have been paired up for a bit, patiently waiting for the right time to be unleashed.
And then The Day happened.
It was a rather ordinary day of recovery after a series of fun talks (shout out to my peeps at Cal Poly!). I didn’t feel like doing a lot because I was pooped. I tried to go for a hike, but the recent rains had made the ground too puddly and mushy for such shenanigans. I returned to the hotel thinking I might hop on a treadmill, but that just seemed too indoorsy for a day that some sunlight peeking out and a relatively decent temperature (55 degrees in January is downright balmy for this Ohio dude who lived in Wisconsin for 20 years).
And so I went back outside and strolled.
First around the parking lot of the hotel, then around the nearby shopping center, and then onto a sidewalk that lead me by through some construction projects toward a newly built neighborhood. The views weren’t impressive; it wasn’t exactly serene. Still: it was lovely in its ordinariness. I passed people walking their dogs and construction workers doing their constructioning. I paused at an abandoned Bed, Bath and Beyond and peered into the vast empty space. My original instinct was to judge the large empty space as a commentary on the weird state of consumerism in our economy. But then I noticed a little sign about the wedding registry and my mind flitted off, pondering all the happy couples who received useful gifts that helped build their new life together.
It wasn’t the nature walk I had been longing for, and it wasn’t strenuous enough to close the fitness rings on my Apple Watch. And yet I was indeed outdoors with the sunshine and freshly planted trees…and as twilight neared I even heard a chorus of peepers from the park across the street.
It was lovely, and as I sit here in my hotel room about to wrap up my time here so I can head for home, I’m grateful for all the nature things and all the human things and just all of the things. Quiet miracles, all of them.
I hope your week includes a little bit of extra time and space so you can notice them, too.
Peace,
Paul
