The Beginning of Everything - Part 3
This is how they accumulate. More branches on the same tree. This was inspired by a comment about how challenging the Gratitude Challenge days I presented on Instagram are. And as it happens, my view also supports The Beginning of Everything. That idea of how “in the end, something must have once been born out of nothing…” as I explain in part no. 1.
So, from thought to action.
It’s easier to explain this with examples than through deep philosophy. Each of us is probably currently in contact with some kind of fabric. Take a look at it for a moment and think about all that has been required for it to be where it is now.
Where did you get it? Did you buy it somewhere, did it come as a gift..? Where did it come from to get here? Where was it sewn into its current form? What is it made from? Where were those raw materials produced? Where were they sourced? Who packed them at every stage? If it’s a natural material, who collected it, grew it, how, where were the seeds from..?
How many twists and turns,
How many hands have been required so that you could have it. Does it suddenly feel like an unbelievably long process has been needed? Yet, there it is. Out of all the possible variables in the world, there it is now. Helping you. With you. Not, for example, with me here or with the others reading this, but With You.
Finns love coffee
So let’s repeat this same exercise with a cup of coffee. Coffee beans, packaging, filter papers or system, the coffee maker with all its parts, water, milk or cream or a vegan alternative… Oh yes, and you need a mug for it too. By the way, do you know what raw materials a ceramic mug is made of? So, even each cup of coffee requires countless little miracles. Not to mention the miracle called caffeine. Which whispers in your ear that you can accomplish anything in the next 45 minutes.
(A little side comment — about how I have given up coffee and caffeine. A sugar addiction took its place, and now I’m weaning off that nicely in honor of summer.)
How could one not find gratitude?
Borrowing the grandmothers’ teaching: every morning is a miracle. Nowadays I consider it a small miracle if I happen to unexpectedly die peacefully in my sleep (which is what the grandmothers’ saying refers to). Instead, I have refined my grandmother's lesson into my morning routine. When I open the curtains and see out into nature. Wonderful! The same dog walkers and commuters pass by along the road by the forest every morning.
While eating breakfast, I have on many mornings thanked my luck for tasty cheese and fresh fruit. I don’t even produce either of those myself! Yet my life is full of these miracles.
Are you starting to get the point?
I almost wrote a comment here about my grandmother's war memories, but I don’t think we even need to go that far. It’s enough that we breathe and focus on marveling at how the oxygen in that little mass of air moved from our lungs into our bloodstream. And how little time that took! Completely automatically. Without our supervision. We are miracles. Our surroundings are full of miracles.
Thank you for the miracle that you are there with your device reading this ✨
I thank each one of you 💖
When you catch your reflection today in any reflective surface, notice that miracle and throw a smile at the miracle staring back at you. Today you are allowed to marvel and Thrive 🍀
