Awesome!

Just for the record, I published my thoughts on "love" five days before Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical on the same subject. I guess it's true what they say about great minds :-)

I've been trying to focus this week on the fact that I'm a walking, talking miracle! I awaken each morning to begin miraculous feats of breathing, eating and thinking that even the most technologically advanced enterprises have yet to duplicate. I drive to work, compute all day, get caught up on world events while eating supper in front of the television, and go to sleep with the confidence that my atomic alarm clock will punctually wake me up to start the routine all over again.

Because it is a routine probably explains why I fail to be in awe of my life, why I take what is so truly amazing for granted. When I don't regard even my own life as extraordinary, it certainly stands to reason that I'm not going to think that anyone else is particularly special either. When the actual miracle is viewed as mundane, I'm drawn to the sensational and extreme to satisfy my longing for the remarkable.

Albert Schweitzer aspired to revere life. His is an example that I find worthy of emulating, and a good start is to quit thinking of my life as anything less than the miracle it truly is. As I grow in such an understanding, I cannot help but hold others with higher regard as well. I cannot explain why life isn't perceived as precious until something threatens to take it away, but that's not going to prevent me from counting each moment as awesome, starting now!