A Good Conspiracy

Living gratefully today, I appreciate the pleasant aroma of a variety of trees and plants in bloom. I pause to give thanks for my sense of smell and for all of my senses. 

Kristi Nelson, Executive Director of A Network for Grateful Living, is facilitating a class I am taking on Wake Up Grateful, her recent book. It is one I would recommend to all, and is the kind of book that you can pick up and read a page or two and come across plenty of good stuff. You could read the same pages next week and find more. 

The subtitle of the book is "The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted." This is about waking up to each moment, not just a new day. In our most recent class, she was talking about how a million things had to happen just right to get us here to this moment, and there were one million things that didn’t go wrong to get us here too. 

There's been plenty of mention of conspiracies in the news in the last year. This is a good conspiracy. 

The kind that reveals itself. 

Consider the truth in those words. My heart keeps beating, cells regenerating, oxygen flowing. My brain sends and receives signals all day long and I barely notice. I will take tens of thousands of breaths today whether I am focusing on them or not. 

And the close calls that could have ended my time here. The ones that didn't happen. The drinking blackouts from which I woke. The swerving car that made it back to its own lane in time. The tree that didn't fall. The virus that didn't take hold. 

We could all sit and make an extensive list to continue this humble journey of what got us here, right here, right now. Or, we could simply sit in the awe and grace and gratefulness that surfaces and savor it. 

Either way, the list or the savoring, we give honor to being alive and the gifts of this life that unfold before us and within us each day.