Changes

There isn’t a whole lot I haven’t noticed about my body. I know I’m a little chubby and a little round. I know I have scars on my knees, scars on my head, and scars on hands; all battle wounds of growing up a tomboy and having all brothers. I know my eyes are a nice shade of blue and my hair is a chocolate brown. I have seen the effects on my feet of wearing high heels to work everyday. I haven’t failed to notice the freckles that poke-a-dot my face. I even see my hairy, hairy arms I inherited from my Portuguese mother. What about the rest of me?
After looking closer, deeper and really scrutinizing my body I noticed things, I have really never noticed before. For instance I have two perfectly round, small freckles on two of my toes; they exist on my right foot, one on the second toe and one of the third. I suppose I haven’t noticed before because they reside more on the sides of my toes, hidden. Stranger than freckles on my toes is the way my skin is aging already, which up until today I hadn’t really taken notice. The skin on my chest is beginning to show signs of too much time in the sun; the skin on my neck although still firm is beginning to slightly loosen and when I look surprised it takes just a second longer than I’d like for the visible signs of my surprise to disappear on my forehead. Smile lines are also slowly making their grand entrance into my world. My face isn’t old by any means really, but I can see that it is changing; I can see a noticeable difference between my face today and my face 10 years ago. And the biggest thing I see when I look in the mirror is, my Mother! I am slowing transforming, feature by feature, day by day, into a clone of my Mom. It’s funny how you wake up one day, and for me that day would be today, look in the mirror and see her starring back at you.
I think I have made enough discoveries for one day. I’m going to quit while I’m ahead. Lucky for me, I happen to like freckles; I believe they give me character. Even luckier for me, I have a beautiful Mother; it would be an honor as I age to transform into her image.

Divine Coincidence

Serendipity, coincidence, chance, luck, or maybe divine planning and intervention; with all the beauty of the earth could it all just be “combinations of matter run amok?” To see a new born baby take his first breath and let out his first cry, and the proud parents who can’t believe something so beautiful just happened to them; or a double rainbow appearing from almost nowhere after a downpour of rain; or the wings of a butterfly so beautifully colorful and perfectly painted. Could it all just be a fluke or could something higher, something divine have a hand in it all?
At one time or another all of us have been “in the right place at the right time”. There are those moments of near death on the highway, where if you had just been ten seconds further down the road, you too would be in a tangled mess of metal. There are moments when at the last second you change your mind about which restaurant to go to and you end up meeting the greatest friend you’ll ever have. And there are those moments where a simple act of grace will change a life forever. After I had lived a little, witnessed a little, and experienced a little it got harder and harder to believe that all of this could just be one big cosmic ball of luck. How could so many great things around me and in this world just be wonderful stokes of fortune?
My determination is that universe isn’t a stroke of fortune or luck. There is divine intervention that has a hand in it all. I refuse to believe that so many wonderful things are left to chance. Whether or not humans evolved from fish or from the rib of a man; whether or not there was a big boom or a seven day creation; I believe it was all instigated and determined by a higher power, who precisely created the universe to be something beautiful and majestic. No matter what you believe, I urge you to open your eyes wide and see the beauty that surrounds you.