GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 13: “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh
How many of us would think to be grateful for the earth we walk on…saying thank you to the dirt, which is a key ingredient in growing the food we eat?
How many of us are mindful of keeping our world as beautiful (or more so) thank we find it? Do we thank the beach for the time we spent sitting and watching the waves or a sunset?
How many of us thank our feet for the many miles of travel they provide? Do we care for them and keep them healthy and rested so we can walk again another time?
How many of us recognize the air we breathe and say thanks to the atmosphere that we can keep breathing at all with all the cars and factories and other sources of air pollution?
How many of us thank our lungs for filtering that air and bringing it to the rest of our bodies to keep the other organs oxygenated?
How many of us see the sun and say thank you for giving us the light that grows things and by which we can navigate our days? (I, personally could not live in darkness for long periods as folks do who reside in the polar environments.)
How many of us remember to thank our eyes for the gift of seeing the sun and all that is revealed to us by its light?
How many of us would think to say thank you for a glass of water…knowing that without it we would dry up inside and die?
How many of us take the time to thank our bodies for assimilating that water and hydrating vital organs with it and processing out the wastes that are washed away without us thinking about it?
When we pay attention to the beauty and wonder of the natural world around us, we are more careful to care for it in ways that are sustainable. We rely on so much of the world around us and would be stricken if we lost any part of it that provides perfectly all our physical needs.
The same is true of our bodies. When you recognize the vast richness of what is provided without even asking, you realize the miraculous life that flows within each of us. We would be devastated to lose any function that we take for granted. But recognizing the miraculous and saying thank you for it is empty if we are not mindful to cherish it all for the reliance we have on its always being there.
I don’t want to live in a world without air or water, but I come from a generation that was on the brink of destroying them because of the careless misuse of those generations of people who did not think mindfully about them.
I don’t want to walk through the world without lungs or feet or vital organs that function properly. I did not always live mindfully with that. Today I do. I want to have a healthy and useful life, so I take good care of myself and urge those I love to join me. Most of them do not.
We have a tremendous problem with ego. It tells us we are bullet-proof on one hand, and on the other that the only protection we can find is to live in terror and fear of everything that we must control. Ugh! I call it the screaming purple monkeys…and they lie; very loudly, too.
As we become mindful, it is necessary to make changes in how we do things. It is also that we DO things to make the changes, not just sit and dwell mindfully about them. Today is the perfect day for showing the gratitude you have…it needs feet in tennis shoes, walking the walk. Let’s go!
Dolphin Hug 