Everyday Miracles

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, awareness, consciousness, creative mind, human, intelligent force, life, loving heart, miracles, perfection, planets, prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

Here is an interesting thought for pondering that brings my awareness to the importance of how I look at life. I invite you to suspend judgment and just read the words, then see if you can agree with the concept. If not, spend some time assessing your objections and ask yourself what it would take to adjust your attitude.

The universe was designed to work and in spite of appearances, it does. All of life, from the tiniest amoeba to the trillions of stars, planets and galaxies, operates with clockwork precision. Surely there is an intelligent force with an unfathomably creative mind and loving heart behind such magnificent perfection! (Alan Cohen – A Deep Breath of Life)

What are the most amazing miracles that you observe in life? For me it’s the incredible cooperation of systems in the human body and the way the planets keep moving without colliding. Or it could be the way that the change of seasons is so vibrant in my neighborhood or the prayer plant in front of my window whose leaves move from a horizontal position in the day to verticality at night so I can sleep knowing that there is, in fact, a creature lifting up prayer in my stead throughout the night. I could go on (big surprise, right?) but each of us must choose what it is that stuns us into consciousness of the amazing universe given to us even in our darkest days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change of Season

Tags

Hafiz, love, party, planets, solstice, spring, strawberry moon, Sufi, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thunderstorm

I get confused sometimes about the summer solstice. Is it the 20th or the 21st of June? Added to that this year was the title “Strawberry Moon” which I had never heard before. It turns out that I basically missed the whole (very rare) event as there was some cloud cover last night and it took me until this morning to read that the June moon got its name simply because it’s the season of strawberries in the USA. What I did not miss at 2:00AM, however, was a wild thunder and lightning event, with heavy rain drenching our bit of earth very quickly and moving on. I was awake just long enough to close my windows and to recognize the power of natural forces before I sank back into the oblivion of sleep. Maybe the storm actually lasted longer than I did in observing it…

Not drawn to the Scripture readings this morning, I opened The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. These are the poems I found on two successive pages. (My apologies to Hafiz and his translator, Daniel Ladinsky, for typing them here in prose form.)

SOME OF THE PLANETS ARE HOSTING The ear becomes alert when music says, “I am over here.” The eye goes on duty, becomes viable, when beauty whistles and points to her dress on the ground. God has sent out ten thousand messengers  announcing a great bash tonight some of the planets are hosting where the lead singer is God, Himself. But most of those courtiers have become drunk, got waylaid, disoriented to the hilt with such exalted news, and can no longer remember the time and the place. What does that have to do with you? Plenty. Hafiz will fill you in later if need be.

WHAT IS THE ROOT? What is the root of all these words? One thing: love. But a love so deep and sweet it needed to express itself with scents, sounds, colors that never before existed.

I guess I should try to pay more attention to this day. I wouldn’t want to miss another big bash!