I started reading this book two days ago and I cannot believe how addicted I am already to reading the passage for the day and trying to apply it to my life as a father/husband/coach/exercise enthusiast.
Today the passage dealt with miracles. It talks about being in the moment and really taking time to appreciate all the miracles that are around us. We are busy people. Busy doing whatever you do during your 24 hours each day. The “busy” aspect of our lives can be different depending on our families, schedules, and hobbies, but essentially we are all connected by the fact that we so easily become distracted with all that has to be done. We start to stress about doing this and doing that. We become frustrated and lose sight very easily about the important things. The passage today reminds me to slow down and make sure I don’t miss the miracles at hand.
Let me give you an example of a few miracles that have happened since I took time to notice them.
1. Today a sporadic moment at the end of the school day had me walking into the classroom of another teacher. I shared with him the book and how I thought it was the perfect book for him. This lead to to two discussions. One with another teacher in the hallway and one with him after he read the passage for today and we discussed the topic at hand. These two discussions were miracles in my mind because we took time to listen, share, and make a connection that we could have easily lost in the shuffle of teaching, lesson planning, cleaning up, rushing to our next job as coach or parent. It felt good to talk about something that drew passion out of other people. This lead me to…..
2. Thinking back to yesterday when we decorated the Christmas Tree. I was so worried about getting all these things done before school today that I grew impatient with my children. I was not the joyous person I typically am around the the Christmas Tree decorating time. My wife gave me a look, said my name when I became angry at my daughter and she instantly put me into place. This miracle of my wife caused me to calm down, collect myself, and enjoy the moment. I don’t care where the ornaments are located. Is it really important? It is more important that my kids decorate. They have a reason for the placement of the ornaments. I also was allowed the miracle of listening to my kids remember all the ornaments. These already have sentimental value to them as they could remember so many of them. I was blown away by their memory. Some of them were wadded up paper that they created years ago that they called “gifts”. They remembered they made them and it meant the world to them that we still had them. Had my wife not performed her miracle I would have missed these moments in exchange for anger and that would have lead to regret.
3. I loaded up some pictures from my phone from this weekend and reading the passage today had me think about all the things I am thankful for. The pictures lend themselves perfectly to this and I will be crafting a little slide show/blog post about these pictures when I have some more time.
I cannot wait to read the passage for tomorrow. I never read ahead so I must wait until tomorrow. Until then, don’t forget to slow down and look for the miracles around you. They are everywhere and everyone has a story to share about miracles. Don’t lose sight of the important things in life. They are not always what is on your To Do List.
Live Uncommon!!
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