“Each moment you are alive is a gem. It needs you to breathe gently for the miracles to be displayed.”
~Thich Nhat Hahn

The beauty of this day, this Monday in June, is staggering. I took an early morning walk and enjoyed the cool, crisp air which seemed clearer and cleaner than usual. The green of the grass in yards in our neighborhood and nearby park have been fed generously by the rains we have experienced over the last weeks. We are slowly becoming an Irish cousin, rivaling the Emerald Isle in our greenness! Flowers along my walking path were in full bloom and their colors were brilliant beyond belief. Many looked like a painting of themselves, an object of art created by a talented and careful hand. Some would say this is true on so many levels and I am one of them.

These are the days of summer when the visual threatens to be too much for the normal human. It seems nearly a sin to be occupied by paperwork or cleaning floors or solving car problems or dental work. Yet these are the things that have pulled me from the exquisite beauty of this day. I have no doubt that I will need to atone for these distractions at some point. I should have, I know, spent the entire day watching the flowers grow or the children play next door. The children who need not bother with the tedious actions of the adult world. They are running through the grass in their bare feet allowing the springy earth to bounce beneath their free and joyous bodies. I can hear them outside my window and want to join them.

At my desk I came upon these words of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn. As I read them I allowed their wisdom to wash over me. Truly this day in which I find myself living is a gem. It feels a blessing to recognize it, to not allow the pushes and pulls on time, the long list of to-dos, to distract me. As I breath in gently, I can feel the miracle not only of the breath itself but the gift of the many miracles I have already witnessed this day. I say a prayer for those who have not had the privilege of so many miracles, so many noticings.

One such miracle is sitting on our kitchen table right now. It is nestled among some flowers I purchased at the farmer’s market over the weekend. It is a flower of a brilliant yellow color and fluffy, if flowers can be so. I don’t know its name but I am amazed by it. What amazes me more is its unopened twin that has slowly been emerging before our very eyes. It looks like a pineapple. Here is a flower removed from its root, cut before its blossoming, placed in a vase in my kitchen and still willing to come to its fullness. Amazing!

If I was a person of true wisdom and faith, I would have abandoned everything else to set up camp and watch it open further and further until it, too, shines forth its sunlit hues into the world. I would wait to bear witness to the beauty of its life unfolding. Instead I am trying to be content with quick glances as I walk through the room to return a glass to the sink or let the big black dog out for the hundredth time today. Walking past this gem of creation, I breathe gently before heading on to the ‘what next’ of my day.

Wherever you are on this brilliant gift of a day, one that is showing forth for your amazement, I pray you are also breathing gently and encountering all the miracles coming your way…….