"It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season - like all the other seasons - is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them." - Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal
How many times do I actually sit back and count up all of the miracles in my life? Every little tiny miracle? Probably not as often as I should, though I do feel that I fairly regularly express thanks for the many blessings that I have in my life. I have become so accustomed to viewing miracles as those extra extraordinary happenings that occur on occasion, but in actuality miracles happen every day. Perhaps they've just been taken for granted.
If you think about the miracles mentioned in the quote above from Lemony Snicket's book, The Lump of Coal, it becomes easy to see that, indeed, everyday occurrences, such as eating a meal or snack, watching your favorite shows on TV, and getting to take a hot shower, among hundreds of other things, are miracles. In Sweden these "everyday miracles" are called vardags lyx, or everyday luxury. And we do have a bit of luxury every day, wouldn't you agree?
A few of the "everyday" luxuries that I took note of today:
- Getting to cuddle with my husband and cat long after the alarm went off
- Taking a nice, long, hot shower
- Drinking a leisurely cup of coffee while getting ready for work
- Taking the subway to work and getting to sit down the whole way there
- Eating pop tarts (that a dear friend sent to me as a Christmas gift) for breakfast (Thank you D!)
- Meeting my husband for lunch
- My iPhone that I am able to use to look up the weather and directions on as well as check my email, read the news, or call a friend among many other things...
And those are just a few of the things that, when I think about it, really are miracles that occur every day. As I was having lunch with my husband today and telling him about my thoughts on everyday miracles, the idea came up to write a list every day of the small miracles that occur to help keep me focuses on what is truly important and avoid focusing on what I perceive as "missing" from my life. There are so many things and blessings to be thankful for that it seems to be a waste of energy to long for things that I do not have. Even if I don't write a physical list each day, I'd like to take a moment at the end of each day to pause and reflect on the miracles that I experienced that day. Taking the time to be mindful of my life instead of just watching it sail by.
What are your everyday luxuries? Take a moment today to be grateful for them... and to count your miracles.
The miracle of Tomte (Santa)...
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