Do You See the Miracle in the Ordinary?

What are you grateful for? As a life coach, I ask myself and my clients this all the time … not just at Thanksgiving.

And, so often, it’s the people in our lives, good health, and material abundance that we tend to focus on. That’s all good.

And yet, there are the miracles of life we tend to take for granted … like the beating of our hearts, which will do their thing some 100,000 times today … the magical thing that is high fidelity recorded music … the seed that waits years before flowering in the desert … the miracle of the sun rising yet another day as the earth rockets through space at 36,000 miles an hour.

May I offer you this Taoist prayer, which connects us with the essential … the miraculous … the possible. I think you’ll enjoy it.

All we need is the morning.
As long as there is sunrise,
then there is the possibility
that we can face all of our misfortunes,
celebrate all our blessings,
and live all our endeavors as human beings.

Spirituality is something that has become
necessary in these troubled times.
Yet it is inherently superfluous.
We need it to remind ourselves,
to bolster ourselves,
to integrate ourselves,
to fulfill ourselves.

If we could simply acknowledge
the mystery of night
and the glory of morning,
we would need neither civilization nor spirituality.

At its simplest, life begins with dawn.
That is blessing enough.
All else becomes fullness immeasurable.
At dawn, kneel down and give thanks
for this wonderful event.

We may think mornings are so common
they are unworthy of veneration,
but do you realize most places in the cosmos
do not have mornings?

This daily event is our supreme goodness.
Greet the dawn.
That is your miracle to witness.
That is the ultimate beauty.
That is sacredness.
That is your gift from heaven.
That is your omen of prophesy.
That is knowledge that life is not futile.
That is enlightenment.
That is your meaning in life.
That is your directive.
That is your comfort.
That is the solemnity of duty.
That is inspiration for compassion.
That is the light of the ultimate.

– Deng Ming-Dao

Have a lovely Thanksgiving.