Miracles

This afternoon the only thought worth sharing with everyone is how amazed I am at being alive.

When I was a kid back in the 1960s, we were told that an atomic war with the Soviet Union was just a question of time. In school they taught us to hide from incoming atom bombs by takiing shelter under our desks.

"Duck and Cover" strategy for protection against a-bombs.

My father built a bomb shelter in the basement of our house to protect us from the blast. We had a radio and bunkbeds. He stocked it with plenty of canned goods, just in case we had to stay there for a week or so until the radioactive fallout had blown away.

"Fallout Shelter"

The Russians were coming, and soon.

We tried banning the bomb...

But years later there's more bombs than ever.

I was sure we were doomed.

But here I am, 50 years later, tapping on a bar of plastic and sending electronic images around the world with my trivial reflections on life.

I'm truly amazed. People want miracles. They love miracles:a child  cured of cancer, a swami levitates, a holy virgin appears on a napkin, a divine image appears on a wall...but are these really miracles?

I think we spend a lot of time overlooking the real miracle: that we're here at all. That we live, breathe, walk down the street, speak different languages, have children, and live to another day.  Or even live to be 61 years old.

I'm astonished that in spite of nuclear threats of atomic war, epidemic viruses, famine, flood, hurricanes, accidents, and all I've been through in my long and checkered career I've made it this far. 

I'm convinced that life itself is a divine miracle and I'm happy to have had the chance to participate.

One of my favorite reflections is the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus tells his followers not to worry about material things.  "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Therefore take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Consider the lilies of the field...

They labour not, nor do they spin cloth...

Yet Solomon

in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.

O, Ye of little faith...

Seek ye first...

the Kingdom of God

Bless you all. Thanks for the miracles.