A Lens of Wonder

Yesterday after I got home from work, a message suddenly appeared in my inbox:

Hey Mom! I have internet for a little while!

It was Darian. What a fabulous surprise. We spent the next bit of time texting and sharing photos and acting as though life is normal and she's just around the corner instead of thousands of miles away in a completely different country.

I read a quote recently that said we should look for the miracles every day.

So I don't know about you, but I'm not one to think that miracles happen in my life on a daily scale. Miracles are those things that surprise us on a grand fashion, that one hears about and stops in wonder. But what about if I changed my attitude? What about if I did expect miracles every single day. What a beautiful lens that would be to view my life.

Yesterday after I enrolled Jace in Pathfinders, I went for a quick walk with a little bit of jogging thrown in for good measure. (That would be a very loose interpretation of jogging--just saying.) As I left the house, was walking quickly down the driveway, I spied something out of the corner of my eye, and whattayaknow, there was Ajax, bounding down the hill with full intentions of following Piper and me.

Ajax has just discovered that he has the ability to leave the yard. Prior to this realization, he would hang on the edge of our yard and cry loudly and pitifully after me. It was adorable. But then one day, on a whim, he decided to just truck after us and I had to use my ninja skills to catch him and throw him back in the house for fear he would follow me all the way down to Holcombe Cove Road.

And so yesterday, when I saw him bounding beside us, I quickly tried to snatch him up. He evaded me and realized I was after him. Now he was genuinely excited as I was playing his favorite game: Catch Me If You Can. As it was rather late and I knew I would be racing sunset as it was, I wasn't too enthralled to be in this cat and mouse game with Ajax.

And then, because I am looking for miracles with my newfound attitude, a miracle happened: I caught him. Relieved, I snatched him up, carried him back up the driveway, and tossed him (loose definition of tossed so no worries) in the front door and shut it firmly behind me.

Ah. Success.

And then off we went, Piper and me, ready for our walk.

But guess what.

Out of the corner of my eye? Ajax. As soon as those little paws hit the floor of the entranceway, he bounded across the living room and right out the cat door and beat me to the road.

Yeah. That happened.

And so this time I did the next best thing: I yelled like a banshee and stomped my feet towards him, scaring the living daylights of him so that he ran for the bushes and hid while Piper and I made a mad dash up the hill.

And then I heard it--that loud, pitiful wailing that he does when he feels abandoned.

It was a great walk.

Miracle #3. (Miracle #1, in case you're wondering, is hearing from Darian...)

I'm not sure what lies ahead of me today. I do know that it's dark outside so the sun will be rising soon. And if things go as planned, my car will start and I will drive safely to work where I will meet my adorable coworkers who have all become so dear to my heart over the past year. And maybe I'll get a surprise text from Tammy as she goes about her day, or maybe Erin will suddenly find a minute in her crazy schedule so that we can walk this evening and catch up on all of the stories of her life. Maybe Roy will decide on a whim to come in and meet me for lunch. And maybe this evening I will talk to my dad, or my mom, or my sisters, and catch up with the ones I love the most in this world.

Maybe Darian will visit the river near town and have Internet once again so that we can pretend that life is normal and contact is daily rather than sporadic, depending on whether she's in a tiny town made up of dirt roads and haphazardly constructed shacks, or the jungles of Bolivia.

I think that life is filled with miracles. The fact that I breathe air every day, that flowers bloom, that birds sing, that the sun rises and sets and paints the sky shades of gold, that cars whiz down the highway, that pets share their love so abundantly, that people care enough to know my name...well, all of those things become commonplace and regular. They are expected.

But what a different life we would lead if we looked through the lens of wonder.