Little Miracles

Our lives are filled with blessings and little miracles everyday sometimes we're aware of them and other times not so much.  I've been working to try to slow down and be aware of all of the wonderful people and things I have in my life.  

As I've posted here, I begin my day with meditation and often journaling.  I've talked about how much I love motivational quotes.  All of those habits are wonderful for injecting that feel good vibe into the start of my day... but sometimes things happen when I leave the comfort of my office space.

My daughters will suddenly remember that they need something important for school - like balloons for a random act of kindness day.  I'm scrambling to find a package of balloons and less than patient.  Or I get cut off or impatient with a slow driver on my way to work.  Suddenly that ‘chilled out life doesn't get me stressed out’ buzz I had post meditation is gone and I'm a cortisol driven lunatic... well maybe not quite a lunatic.

There are so many times when the little things, and they are little things distract us from what is really important.  Today two things happened to remind me of the beauty I am surrounded by.  

We had our first major snowfall last night.  My world looked like this when I woke up. 

My daughter built this fun lady....

I also was able to visit my niece.  She is just 5 months old.  I have 6 nieces and nephews and they are so much fun.  But this baby is the first niece or nephew that has come into my life since my kids were born.  The amount of time that has passed since my kids were babies until my sister had her daughter has made me realize how amazing babies really are.

My niece was born five weeks early and made a rather dramatic entrance into the world for both my sister and herself.  Fortunately, everyone is healthy.  But each time I see and hold this baby I am reminded of what a miracle she is. But if we really stop and think about it each of us are miracles.

There is a specific set of circumstances that allowed us to be here.  Not to get overly explicit into the details of mating and genetics but the chance meetings between our parents, grandparents, great grandparents that provided the ability for us to be here are pretty amazing.  

Combine those situations which allow us to be here and consider the close calls during our childhood, while driving or any other situation where we may not have survived and our existence can seem quite precarious.  

If we chose to, we can view each day as the miracle it is or we can allow ourselves to get caught up in the small irritations that don't really matter.  

My goal for the next week is to focus on perspective.  When I feel that irritation kick in, I'm going to try to remember to ask myself - Is this frustration worth it?  Hopefully the rational side of me will kick in and I will remember the joy I feel holding my niece or watching my own daughters with her. Even just the minute it takes to step back may stop the negative thoughts from taking seed and hopefully they diminish.

Life is how we chose to view it.  Let’s see it as a miracle.