I was in the woods with my toddler on a brisk autumn morning after a little bit of (ok a lot of) quarantine cabin fever. My little guru of the present moment invited me into the most rewarding activity of the day, throwing acorns into a large pile of crunchy leaves. I don’t know if it was watching an acorn abruptly disappear into the pile that got me or hearing the crisp and crunchy sound the leaves made when it landed, but it was strangely satisfying. Hearing my daughter giggle each time we lodged an acorn into the abyss also made it that much more fun.
There must have been thousands of acorns covering the ground. I picked up one acorn, kneeled down to my daughter’s level, held up it to her, and pointed to the towering oak tree we were standing under. That very tall tree came to be from this small acorn. I saw the wonder in her eyes and I paused for a moment to take in my own teaching. Pure life potential condensed into one penny-sized acorn. This beauty that I was holding in the palm of my hand could transform into a structure that would stand 60-100 feet tall. In that moment of pause, a simple scientific fact became a miracle. Suddenly I became a witness to this acorn. As I looked down at the thousands of acorns carpeting the ground, I suddenly became aware of all the little miracles residing within them. All the new life this tree was dropping to the Earth abundantly and graciously, even in the midst of a “dying” season.
It would have been easy to miss this miracle. Before we started playing our little game, I stepped all over these acorns to get to our next destination. We stopped and we noticed. Then looked deeply and something very ordinary became extraordinary.
This acorn was an invitation.
To slow down.
To be present.
To pay attention.
To look deeply.
To witness the miracle of life.
Where are the tiny acorns in your everyday life?
What do you notice around you that reminds you that life is still good?
Can you look deeply into the ordinary, the routine, the familiar around you and witness the miracles that reside within?
If this pandemic teaches us anything, it is that life is sacred.
Tender.
Pure.
Holy.
Miraculous.
May you behold the miraculous today and every day.