Saying For Today: Yes, Life is miraculous. It pulls us into Itself and shapes us in forms we do not choose, but do.
Footprints in the Sand
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The Sage was asked, "Have you ever witnessed a miracle?" He closed his eyes, inhaled and exhaled a few times, opened his eyes, and said smiling, "Yes, I just did. I'm breathing."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.
*Shunryu Suzuki. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.
Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Hosts! The whole Earth is filled with his Effulgence!
*Isaiah 6.3
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The letter mentions that my life must have been interesting. I reply, sitting in silence, alone, and looking out onto the cold December morning and the snow-laden ground here in the midcoast of Maine. I am far, far away from where my life first took shape and most of what would have been interesting about it - or so it seems. It is raining, and I enjoy the look and sound of rain. Even the sound of traffic on the wet highway outside is welcome, part of this oasis of silence and stillness.
"Interesting," yes. I am at a point of this passage "below" of grieving what I wanted to be and never became. And what I did and was seem far away. I seemed to have the gifts but not the conditions; yet, those gifts were used on a smaller stage, where most of us are.
These moments of sadness are interrupted by another: the realization that I was likely saved from what I wanted. Maybe, that helped me learn I am-we are, and that is enough.
The wish to be "somebody" is an interesting wish and seems to lead some to "paradise" and some to "hell." Better, I have learned to be led to neither. Better, the wish to forget anything we want to be and just enjoy breathing, walking, laughing, dreaming, crying, and loving. We might have visits to "paradise," but to live there would soon be as boring as "hell."
Yes, Life is miraculous. It pulls us into Itself and shapes us in forms we do not choose, but do.
Sitting with hot coffee, hot green tea, and a drink of ginger ale, beet juice, blueberry juice... - raining outside - celestial enough for me. Of course, the small dose of dark chocolate was welcome to the party, too. I began eating dark chocolate as medicine for high blood pressure but confess it has become somewhat a rite that some might call an addiction - ... everyone has a personal opinion, it seems, and do not realize it is most-oft purely that - personal -, so we need be in the moment and enjoy the chocolate: life. I joke with persons that when I am breathing my last, I don't think I will say, "I wish I had less chocolate."
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The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available right now. Peace is all around us - in the world and in nature - and within us, in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. ... We only need to find ways to bring our body and mind back to the present moment so we can touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous, within us and around us.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
