Celebrate Life

Izic went to the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown with his class last week. He came home with what he called a beanie baby. It was a dried bean and a wet cotton ball in a little plastic baggie on a string. They told him to wear it around his neck so it would stay warm and blow into it because the carbon dioxide in his exhale would help it grow. It took 6 days to sprout.

Take a moment to consider how amazing this process is. Stored within this tiny (relatively speaking) seed is all the energy and information needed to create life. That is a miracle. With the right set of conditions, warmth and water, something stirs internally, and in a matter of days you have a living, breathing being. It's magic. Now there's a scientific explanation for all of this but that doesn't make it any less amazing or magical.

Our practice this week will be in celebration of life: our lives, our loved ones lives, our own potential to make life. The Earth's capacity to sustain life, along with the sun and water, without which the Earth's potential to carry life would remain potential.

Practice today in awe of life and with gratitude to be a part of it. Contemplate the circumstances in which you were an eventual possibility. Let it infuse your being with joy. Then, at some point this week, take a minute to connect with another living being. Honor and celebrate them.