Season of Creation Daily Day 31: First glimpse of a butterfly

butterfly

Photo used with permission | Dave Perkins coaststill.com

by Peter McLoughlin

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Take a moment to ponder the photograph.


Be amazed

Stay open to a sense of freshness, wonder, gratitude, and awe, instead of taking things for granted or getting numb from the pressure of work and life. While recently stressing about some undone tasks, I glanced in a mirror and saw my T-shirt, with a picture of a galaxy and a little sign in its outer swirls saying "you are here." I've worn this shirt many times — yet for once it stopped me in my tracks.

It really hit me: yes we are actually here, off to the edge of a vast floating whirlpool of stars, alive and conscious, walking and talking on a big rock circling a bigger burning ball of gas. Here, now, nearly fourteen billion years after the cosmos bubbled into being.

I felt the delight and awe of a little kid who for the first time sees a butterfly, or tastes ice cream, or realizes that the stars above are really far away. Gratitude and wow and something feeling sacred washed through me.

I was amazed.                          

— Rick Hanson, psychologist and author (The Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and other books)


Special thanks for gratitude


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Editor's note: Season of Creation Daily is inspired by the Care for Our Common Home Ministry, Paulist Center Boston. To receive daily reflections by email, sign up here.

This story appears in the Season of Creation Daily feature series. View the full series.

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