Everything is a Miracle

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle. The
other is as though everything is a miracle."
-- Albert Einstein*

I realize now that I've been blessed in that I didn't grow up and don't live my life with an abundance of money or "stuff." As a result, from an early age, I knew I needed to find happiness with simple things - going to parks instead of on extravagant trips, visiting sites I could drive to versus flying in airplanes, reading books to take to me to faraway places and to meet new people, finding beauty in the nature around me not at gorgeous man-made resorts. I've been blessed because it's brought me to nature. My free time is spent in nature exercising or just sitting and being, and as a result of being there, I notice.

We've brought friends to camps with us or on rides who talk and talk and never turn their heads to look out the car windows or at the mountains or the lake when they sit at the lake shore. They don't even seem to notice the nature. To them, possibly, nothing is a miracle; they don't notice.

Anyone who spends time in nature regularly looks at the world more as a miracle than not. When in nature, how can you not? An author has written a book of late about the "e-generation," our kids, and his concerns about how they'll turn out. He says that due to two things kids are being deprived - the myriad of electronics that are overtaking our lives and frightened parents that don't let children just be kids and be on their own but instead keep them inside where they're safe, controlled, nearby. He says that not spending time in nature depletes human beings in every way - physically, emotionally, spiritually, creatively. All the things that make up the totality of a person are being starved by not going to nature regularly. How will this generation be lacking due to this critical life force being hidden from them?

Those who see everything as a miracle notice; they make an effort to truly see the details. If you truly look at the intricate patterns within flowers or in spider webs, and they're all different, how can you not pause and see the miracle? How fortunate we are to be able to see all the vivid colors in nature. How can it not make you pause and wonder?

The way to see all things as miracles is to get into nature, look at the details, pause, get quiet and observe, just be. Turn off your electronics from time to time. Don't rush and be preoccupied with the busyness of daily life - get away to the greens, the blues, pinks, purples, oranges and the earth tones of the nature all around us. Notice. Breathe it in.




*Source: Digh, Patti. Life is a Verb. Guilford, Connecticut: skirt! The Globe Pequot Press, 2008. Print. P. 176
www.lifeisaverb.net
www.pattidigh.com

Photo: Scarborough Beach

I Am (the documentary)

Tom Shadyac is a Hollywood director of such films as Liar, Liar and The Nutty Professor. His films made him successful, and he began to acquire the lifestyle and all the trappings of a Beverly Hills celebrity. He lived in a 17,000 square foot home, flew in private jets, had fancy cars and extravagant parties. But...he had an ever present feeling of emptiness and something being not quite right.

In 2007, he had a near death biking accident which is what triggered his complete change in direction. That experience brought him clarity and purpose, he says.

Tom is the kind of man I admire and whose company I would enjoy - creative, kind, thoughtful, athletic, and a leader in his compassion and sharing of ideas, a man unafraid of asking "why?" and "why not?"

He began to let go of all the trappings. He moved to a modest mobile home; he began using his bike as a means of transportation...and he says he's never been happier. This is what prompted him to create his documentary I Am which I recommend. Initially, I heard it would only be shown in select U.S. cities, Philadelphia being the closest to me in Maine, but then, one night on my drive home from work, I happened to turn my head as I waited for the light at Temple and Middle Streets, something I rarely do, and I saw it was playing at Nickelodeon. My son was willing to join me. The documentary was well done and thought provoking.

He began creating his documentary by asking two questions: (1) What's wrong with our world? (2) What can we do about it?

Tom shows the science behind his message and writers and professionals declaring that Darwin's message was actually misquoted. Although Darwin did describe "survival of the fittest" in a small part of his work, what he talked more about was how the nature of all animals is primarily democracy and cooperation, not dominance and competition. Lions do not kill all gazelles, but only those they need to eat. A redwood doesn't take all the nutrients from the soil; it takes only what it needs to survive and flourish. Men are not, as is sometimes stated, inherently violent beings. More soldiers die from suicide than in war.

The Lion King was the first Disney movie we brought our older son to. I had no idea a children's movie would touch me so deeply. The circle of life, taking only what we need, and everything on earth being interconnected was a message more fitting for adults than kids.

After my son and I saw I Am, he, who has sometimes thought he may be a socialist said to me, "I don't like to say I'm part of any group. I'm not a socialist. If anything, I think I'm a collectivist." He sees that we're all interconnected; we get more from empowering, educating, uplifting people than dominating, humiliating, controlling and killing.

Some of the authors and books Tom's documentary highlights are:
Lynne McTaggart The Field and The Intention Experiment
Howard Zinn People's History of the U.S.
Noam Chomsky Profit over People, Failed States, Hopes and Prospects
Thom Hartman Screwed. The Undeclared War on the Middle Class, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.

If more of us think of one another, a sort of "collectivism-type thinking," and taking baby steps with small acts of kindness toward others, we can impact and shift behavior.

Tom's title of his documentary comes from: I Am (the problem); I Am (the solution).

For more information and a preview of the documentary, see www.iamthedoc.com.


(Photo taken from www.oprah.com)