A Good Day

You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day; it's the one day
that is given to you today. It's given to you. It's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right
now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to
cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if
it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, then you will have spent this day
very well.

Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that
incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the
sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to
moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather, and even of the
weather we don't think of all the many nuances of weather. We just think of good weather
and bad weather. This day right now has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never
exactly in that form come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the
same that it is right now.

Open your eyes.

Look at that.
Look at the faces of people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their
face, a story that you could never fully fathom, not only their own story, but the story of
their ancestors. We all go back so far. And in this present moment on this day all the
people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the
world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water, if you only open your
heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch and
there is electric light. You turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water -- and
drinkable water. It's a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.
So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart.
And so I wish for you that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them
flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you;
just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch -- just by your presence. Let the
gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you, and then it will really be a good day.

--Brother David Steindl-Rast

Born Internet