There is a natural human tendency to confuse our own frame of mind with the state of the world. When the stress and chaos of our daily lives closes in, we can easily slip into a sense of powerlessness and limitedness. The world can appear dark and daunting. I was in that place just yesterday and a good friend "called me back to my true self" as Thich Nhat Hanh would say.
The miracles are all around us. Astonishingly enough, when we train ourselves to see the miracles manifest in the world we are forced to confront our personal miracle.
Have you ever considered that at this very moment there are people in outer space? There are people exploring the depths of the ocean. There 100,000 Americans in the air on airplanes right now. There are people climbing mountains, people praying, people weeping, people raising their voices in joyful song.
Somewhere in the world the sun is rising. Somewhere else it is setting. There are ants rebuilding their hills after a rainstorm and a mother leopard hunting prey to feed her hungry cubs. A rushing stream is eroding the soil along its bank while the air slowly claims the stream by evaporation. A baby monkey clings to her new mother while a 70 year-old elephant lies down and closes his eyes for last time; leaving this form he knows so well.
It is a big, amazing world. It is far larger and more wondrous than our limited perspective is capable of recognizing sometimes. When we become mired in our limitedness we forget that every single thing in existence - including us - is a miracle. Each came into being against overwhelming odds.
Further, not a single thing exists that is separate from us. The sun and the stream, the leopard and her prey, birth, living, dying - they are all a part of our common experience.
When we see ourselves in the context of the broader miracle...as an integral part of it....we become stronger and less vulnerable to the whims of our momentary frame of mind. The bottom line, my friend, is that you and I are miracles. We better learn to deal with it.
