Life's Amazing Web

  Mornings like this, when I wake up less than enthusiastically on a "bleak mid-winter " Monday, I focus first on my breath and how it connects me to all of life.  I give thanks for this connection and for all my senses: my sight, that allows me to drink in the colors of the sunrise; my ability to smell peppermint and spruce essential oils; my ears that hear the first morning sounds of children walking to the bus stop and dogs barking in the distance; my sense of touch, as I pet my dog's soft fur; my taste, as I sip freshly brewed coffee. 

When you stop to really think about it, all of life is miraculous, starting with our own bodies. There's been a lot of talk about our immune systems during these pandemic years and if you study what the human body can do to protect itself from viruses and bacteria, it is truly amazing.  Every system in our bodies is a mind-boggling miracle.

As a matter of fact, every creature on this planet is way more complex than we often realize until we study them up close.  From butterflies to bees, flowers to trees, everything is amazing. And we are part of it all; intricately connected, made of the same basic elements as the earth and the cosmos.

Every few years, I re-read a wonderful book called The Luminous Web, by Barbara Brown Taylor.  She is an Episcopal priest who also delights in science and particularly quantum physics. One of my favorite quotes from this book is: "Whatever language you prefer, the apparent truth is that we belong to a vast web of creation in which nothing, absolutely nothing is inconsequential. The hairs on your head, a baby's sneeze, the gravitational pull of an electron at the far edge of the Milky Way-none of these things is negligible.  Not one of them can be subtracted  from creation, or even rounded off, without changing the whole gorgeous geometry of the universe...every one of us will change the world, whether we mean to or not.  In other words, our lives matter, every second, every thought, every action, is consequential because it is a part of everything else.

So on this very ordinary winter morning, I pray that each one of us will give thanks to our Creator, for forming us as an integral part of the web of life.  I pray that we will stand in awe, honoring this sacred connection in everything we say and do.

I'll end with a quote from Albert Einstein: "The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical.  It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead"