I receive a daily meditation prompt from the Open Heart Project Community, a virtual Buddhist Sangha. The prompt that has stuck with me this week is a quote from Maya Angelou:
“This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”
I shared this prompt with my noon meditation group and this sparked an interesting conversation. One person shared, “How do I know if this day will be wonderful? This could be a horrible day.” This inspired me to read the quote a little differently: “This is a wonder – full day. I want to be awake and present to each moment.”
I don’t know what each day will bring, so I want to start each day with wonder: Who will I encounter today? What new ideas will I engage with? Where will I be during the day? When will I ‘call it a day’? Will I encounter the divine, the sublime, the tragic, the joyful? Who and how do I want to be today? There is so much to wonder about as I rise in the morning. And that wonder can inspire wakefulness and attention to “what is” as the day unfolds until I retire for the evening.
This week larger questions may be coming up for many of us as we prepare to hang our new wall calendars: What will 2023 bring, what resolutions, if any, do I want to make? What word or theme will I lean into this year? Is there a way of being I can practice and grow into this year? Honestly, I’ve not often been one to set an annual intention; like many people, I’ve made attempts at these in the past, but they soon get lost in the daily shuffle.
This year I’ml starting with “This is a wonderful year. I’ve never seen this one before.” I imagine this prompt for my 2023 may inspire my wakeful, mindful practice to deepen and grow. It will encourage me to be awake to the wonder of each day, each hour, each moment, each person, each conversation, each task. There is potential in this prompt for me to develop the level of awakeness and presence that can make each day a wonder-full day, even if it doesn’t turn out to be all that wonderful.
May your 2023 be full of wonder and curiosity, courage, and compassion.
~Rev. Jan Taddeo
Rev. Jan, what a wonderful new perspective on life! I hope to practice this new perspective, also. It has such great potential to turn even “bad” days into personal growth opportunities.
Count me in for both the “bad” and the good! The Potential is the real challenge. I guess one has to see it and acknowledge it before seizing it, and if it’s the Bad kind, I”ll have to remind myself of the 3 C’s, curiosity, courage and compassion. I will need help doing this, but I believe in my beloved community’s strength and endurance. We are in this together!