“Waking up this morning I smile,
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment
And to look at all things with eyes of compassion.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh

Sitting at my desk this late afternoon, I read this prayer. I did so with a certain sense of loss. Perhaps I smiled when I woke up this morning. I can’t remember. I am certain that my feet hit the ground running. The list that was spread out before me this day already having its way with me. Did I take note of the fact that this day, these twenty-four hours were new, were before me, were pure gift? Did I make a covenant with the day to live fully? I know I meant to do so. I know in my heart I meant to look at all things with eyes of compassion. But as I think back about the day that will quickly come to an end, I can think of the many times I did not do so. Reading this prayer, with so much of the day behind me, made me aware of all that may have escaped my notice and care this day.

The afternoon sun is setting and the winter clouds have been moving in. The parking lot outside my office window has few cars and I can see that the cars driving by now have their lights on. Another day has nearly passed, never to be received again. I am reflecting on what I have to show for my living this day. I have accomplished some tasks and met with some wonderful people. We have made some decisions and created some plans. It has been a normal, somewhat uneventful,day.

Over the last few days I have been thinking of the gift of each day. Nearly eighteen years ago now, I had a brush with cancer. This is the time of year when I always go for a yearly physical and for the few days after, while I wait for test results, I walk with my feet in two worlds. The world of ‘normal’ and the world of fear. Over the years I have gotten better at walking this path but there is still that moment when opening an envelope is accompanied by a pounding heart. Yesterday was such a day. Yesterday ‘normal’ was a welcomed word.

When I think back to the days after that diagnosis, I always remember how beautiful the world seemed to me. How each day was so precious, so full of beautiful people and miraculous moments. I remember thinking that it was probably impossible to walk around with such intense awe for the world. It seemed to me a fine line we walk between such outright love for living and a kind of madness.

In the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s prayer, there is not the intensity I experienced nearly two decades ago. Instead there is the quiet appreciation of the unique gift that is ours with the beginning of each day. The invitation is to a commitment of being present and knowing that we walk the path with a gathering of people and beings whose vulnerabilities are immense. So compassion becomes our words and actions just as we hope to have that mirror of compassion reflected back at us. This can become the vow we make with ourselves, our families, our co-workers and the countless strangers we pass by.

Today some will receive the message of ‘normal’. Others will begin another journey. My prayers go with them…….