Have you missed the miracle of today, or did it wake you up to wonder? It’s happening right now; somewhere out there daylight is dawning. That fresh gift of morning has already graced us all, as bleary-eyed we rolled from shadow into nuclear radiance; a momentous transmutation of hydrogen into helium, casting out enormous energy to shatter the all-surrounding gloom. Every millisecond of existence, this sacrificial spectacle enlightens the frigid immensity of the void. At 186 thousand miles per second, solar outbursts hurtle across 93 million miles to wake us, warm us, make us squint. And we may blink and blindly say: “It’s just the sun. It happens every day.” After all, it has been reliably radiating for over four billion years. Yet, if the miracle of sunshine fails to impress or startle us from our stupor, perhaps we are simply blinded by the glare.
In this world darkened by despair and deep division, we fumble dimly, to see past self-interest, fears, and endless feuding. But even looking down we can see beyond, like the pilgrim seeking clarity who found a limpid pool, and bending down glimpsed the Milky Way mirrored in the deep. Then gazing heavenward, gaped and gasped at the cosmic show above, while awe-filled silence taught: the stiller you become, the clearer will your reflection be.
—from the book Wandering and Welcome: Meditations for Finding Peace
by Joseph Grant
