Welcome to Living a Life of Gratitude.
I'm Sarah Wiseman.
The air is not empty.
It mists in through the open windows,
Creeps in through the open doors,
And permeates the breeze until we can't get it out of our noses,
Our hair,
Our skin.
It's an early September evening in Oregon and the scent of mint fills the air.
Toothpaste,
My younger daughter remarks.
Mint ice cream,
My son counters.
Mojitos,
My older daughter proclaims.
The scent is overwhelming.
It's as if we'd crushed bowls of mint on the kitchen counter.
Yet it arrives to us from miles away,
Born over fields far across the river where acres and acres of mint have been harvested these past days.
Living out here,
We're used to the air and what it brings.
Someday soon,
The air will hold the smoky cedar smell of wood stoves burning.
When winter comes,
We'll awaken to the clean,
Cold scent of snow and we'll look out to find the fields covered in white.
When the year has turned and it is spring again,
The pollen will inhabit the air so thick and cottony it will burn our noses.
Our eyes will weep with it.
We often say there's nothing to the air,
That it's just air,
Empty space.
Yet in truth,
All air contains particulate.
Mint,
Smoke,
Snow,
Pollen.
Even in what we call empty space,
There is simply more empty space.
Just as we can perceive infinite expansion,
A universe without end,
We can also perceive infinite contraction.
We become aware of the air because of what it contains.
It is not empty when it is wafting mint.
It is not empty ever.
The air around us contains all the complexities of energy and infinite expansion of everything in the universe.
Don't misjudge it or ignore it.
Instead,
Give thanks.
It brings you messages,
Joy,
Beauty,
Vibration.
It is as full as anything else in the world.
