all day people
come into the shop
complaining
of the plummeting temps
that raise us up another miracle


Sometimes, I find myself obsessed with a single word--a word that keeps appearing and reappearing, fusing and overlapping my concrete world and my writing world. The word of the moment is "miracle"--a tiny little word with monumental meaning.

My obsession escalated when an itunes search came up with the song "Ordinary Miracle," sung by Sarah McClachlan in "Charlotte's Web", the movie. This song is beautiful; it's a song about how life itself is a miracle happening before our eyes every single day, and because of the recurrences of things like rain drops and sun rises, we see them as "ordinary." When I stop to think about how amazing every thing is--just an ocean wave rushing in upon the beach right in front of me--I am moved to tears. Life is amazing--full of miracles--everywhere, big like the sky and small like a pine needle! What right have we to choose among them, rate them and even shun them?

And so its December, the tree is up (by some twisted miracle I don't have time to explain) and the miracles so ordinary are everywhere lighting themselves up all around me! Gratitude is the next wonderful word that comes to mind.