Dear friends,
What if you had never been born?
Early this morning,
As I lay in bed,
In that half-awake state,
Which can sometimes give rise to ideas,
This was a question that occurred to me,
And it brought about enormous feelings of gratitude for my existence.
Now,
What if you had never been born?
Let's have a one-minute pause for reflection before exploring this idea.
Welcome back.
I wonder,
Is it necessary to reach an advanced stage of life before these thoughts have meaning for us?
Maybe,
Through mindfulness practice,
The thoughts can come to us earlier.
But I remember years and decades as a younger person,
When the idea of gratitude for my existence never crossed my mind.
It was a case of getting up,
Getting to work,
Living a life,
Going to bed,
And getting up to begin the process again and again.
Now some people dread the idea of getting old,
But I can reassure them that with older age comes a certain wisdom accompanied by a greater sense of gratitude.
Let's be thankful for that if it happens.
At this stage,
Let's have another one-minute pause for reflection.
Welcome back again.
There is this unanswerable reason for gratitude.
Isn't it extraordinary to think that at some point during the evolution of life on earth,
Some moments of magic came about,
When you and I came into existence.
Thanks to an extraordinary unbroken combination of events and coincidences,
Over thousands,
Millions of years,
We came to be here.
And here we are today.
Me talking to you,
And you hopefully listening to me.
How amazing it is to wake up each day and get to experience the wonder of this world.
So today and tomorrow and the next day,
As you and I go about the business of life,
Let's try to keep an awareness of just how wonderful this all is.
The rising and setting of the sun,
The singing of birds,
The blooming of flowers,
The falling rain bringing life to dry earth,
The growth of plants,
And we could go on and on.
We mustn't forget the communication between people,
Sharing life on this planet,
And living under a star-filled night sky.
So many wonderful things to be seen and heard,
All waiting to be noticed,
But only coming to life for us when we reach a point where we make time to stop and reflect.
In these life-changing moments,
We find ourselves open to this long-neglected awareness.
Now there's no need for me to remind you that there is much we find uncomfortable and unacceptable in the world around us.
The discomfort of all that calls all of us to action.
But that's a reflection for another day.
For today,
I'd like us all to relax in a feeling of overwhelming gratitude for the mind-blowing fact that we are here at all.
Now finally,
Can I ask you what might be considered a rude question?
How old are you?
But no rudeness is intended,
And you won't be upset once I tell you the reason for the question.
The inquiry doesn't relate to years.
This is simply an invitation to reflect on one amazing fact.
The age of each of us is not calculated in years or decades.
Our life goes back countless centuries.
And why is this?
The atoms which make up our amazing bodies are said to be 13.
8 billion years old.
That's how old we are.
So on your next birthday,
And I'll do the same on mine,
Let's remember to light one extra candle.
This will represent this extraordinary age,
As you and I give thanks for the day which sets us out on yet another year of wonder and awe.
We are truly blessed to be here.
Namaste.
