THE MIRACLE OF LIFE

“There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.

This comment by the renowned physicist, Nobel laureate and unquestionably one of the greatest thinkers of our time, Albert Einstein, is as profound and as relevant as anyone can imagine. In this short and brief statement, he effectively explained the fundamental options we all have to living life. Despite his rigid, objective training and his scientific views as a physicist and mathematician, he admitted he was acutely conscious of the miracle that was life and was determined to live his life guided by these principles. He viewed that everything about life was a miracle, and that everything associated with its expression was equally miraculous. 

The world itself, with its complex associations of planets and other bodies within the solar system functioning in such glorious harmony is no less a miracle. Einstein explored this further in his discussions on the meaning of life in an essay of the same name contained in his famous publication entitled “The World As I See It.” In the essay he drew attention to our failing in not recognizing this and therefore not understanding the real reason for our existence. He noted: 

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the "Universe;" -a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest; a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.”

His conclusion was indeed correct. Although we are all integral parts of the whole universe, yet most of us continue to insist on living a life separate from it, locked in our own world, either denying its existence, or fooling ourselves into believing otherwise

In reality there are only two ways of looking at life. To those of us who doubt the existence of miracles, then miracles do not exist, and life itself is a delusion which functions like any mechanical engine than runs until it stops and is then discarded. But to those who believe that life itself is the miracle, then everything done, every breath taken, every thought made, every word spoken, and every single moment of every day becomes an extension of the miracle. To these people, this indeed, is the real wonder of life handed to us by a Supreme Being to make full use for all the time allotted before they move on.

Some people spend their whole lives secure in their own prison, unwilling or unable to truly appreciate all the beautiful wonders that exist within and around them. Wonders that we callously take for granted, without stopping for a fleeting moment to appreciate them and to thank God for granting us the opportunity to own or share them. It does not take much to see the richness of miracles in our every day lives. All that is needed is an open mind and faith in the power of the Almighty from whence all of them spring.

Life itself is the greatest miracle of all. Although to the scientist, a human body is just a composite made up of a complex mixture of water and organic material that can be reproduced in a laboratory, yet it is somehow able to walk and talk and think and to reproduce and do all those actions that we call living and sharing. No matter how we try, it is well beyond human intelligence to explain adequately how this organic composite can achieve these actions without admitting that it is the result of some kind of miraculous act of a Greater Being.

How many of us for that matter, have bothered to stop to consider the wonders of this universe that we all share, and to savor all the beauty that is associated with it? Have you ever paused to appreciate the majesty and consistency of the sun, light, seasons and the weather, and to see the beauty of the trees, flowers, the birds and all the animals that inhabit the earth living in beautiful harmony? How does one begin to explain these, and all the countless other wonders that are all around us, without believing in the miracle of life!

      The term ‘miracle’ is often defined as a phenomenon that cannot be explained on scientific grounds. This to my mind is too restrictive and does not take into account the experiences of so many people, nor the miracles that are around and in every thing we do. I prefer, instead to favor an explanation offered by the Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, author, and philosopher Thick Nhat Hanh, who is presently living in exile in France, when he said:

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not in walking either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in miracles which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child, our own two eyes. All these are miracles.”

 Or perhaps, we can simply accept the explanation by the successful American free-lance author, Robert Brault, who advised:

“You can always hope for a miracle in your life, or you can realize that your life is the miracle.”

  
-The final choice is left entirely up to each one of us to decide for ourselves!

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