Small Miracles…
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
Those of you living in Central Texas will likely understand when I say it felt like this past Saturday’s day retreatants were gifted with a small miracle. Sandwiched between cloudy, humid, sometimes rainy weather on Friday and cold, rainy weather on Sunday, was a glorious, sunny Saturday!
Still giddy with joy when I think of this blessing, I’m happy to be able share (throughout the newsletter) some of the beauty with you through Julie Bowman’s gorgeous photography of the flowers and scenery at Still Waters Retreat Center that day.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” —attributed to Albert Einstein, but likely another’s wisdom.
Perhaps it’s because of the responsibility for the details and flow of the retreat or Eremos’ focus on Facets of Joy in 2023, but Saturday’s weather felt like a joyous, small miracle to me. One that’s worthy of remembering, re-enforcing, and to call upon when it’s more difficult to see the miracle or gift in an experience.
It’s the rare individual who can find the miracle in times of pain and loss, but we all have the capacity to notice the small and great miracles around us, save them in our memories, and call upon them to give us courage and comfort in difficult times. What are some of your favorite little miracles this spring? How might you share or journal about them, so they’re ready to be called upon in times of trouble?
May you be blessed with a small miracle today and every day. And may you savor each one.
In Small Letters
“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”
― C.S. Lewis
Photo courtesy of Julie Bowman. Still Waters field on April 22, 2023.
Believe
“Believe in your heart that you’re meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic, and miracles.”
― Roy T. Bennett
Photo Courtesy of Julie Bowman.
Everyone Gets One
“The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightening, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust. But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. I could have seen it rain frogs. I could have stepped foot on Mars. I could have been eaten by a whale. I could have married the Queen of England or survived months at sea. But my miracle was different. My miracle was this: out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.”
― John Green, Paper Towns
What’s your miracle?
Photo courtesy of Julie Bowman
i thank you God for most this amazing
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
―e. e. cummings
Photo courtesy of Julie Bowman, with permission by C. Wylie.
May you be blessed with many most amazing days.
