The Power of Prayer

This is a subject that is definitely not my best subject but yet something that is intriguing to me none the less. I've never really prayed much in my life... I've never really had to. I guess I'd have to say that my life has been pretty peaceful all in all. No major catastrophes (other than a couple hospital mishaps that almost killed me... but the staff pulled through :P) have happened to me. The hospital incidents were beyond my control both times because I was either comatose or unconscious, so I obviously wasn't in a position to pray about the outcome. But if others were praying for me (I appreciate it), apparently it worked because I'm still alive and kicking.

All my life, I've never been religious. Although the older I have gotten, I have seen my spiritual side grow astronomically. Starting in my late teens, I started questioning the world around me because honestly, I couldn't see the point of anything. Everything seemed so inconsequential. But as I aged, I started to see connections and patterns everywhere around me (as if there was some grand plan). Perhaps through age comes the wisdom to see the spectacularness of the world as it is. Or perhaps a juvenile mind can't comprehend the massiveness of the beauty in everything. The cliche, "stop and smell the roses", takes on a whole new meaning when you have an idea of what your looking at. The profound gorgeousness of the petals in their formation. The complex noxiousness that pervades. Even the thorns have their place in the intricate evolution of such an awe inspiring elegant form.

So as I start to understand the phenomenon of seeing profoundness in everything, I can also see how the power of our intentions can affect the world around us. But what is "intention"? Is it merely meaning to do something or is it actually desiring the resulting outcome? Perhaps, at times, when we mean to do something, we aren't necessarily vested in the outcome so our purpose isn't the same as if we desire a particular aftereffect. So if we truly desire something, we pray for it, in our own ways. Will whatever it is we want just be given to us? Probably not. If the consequence is meant to happen anyways, then maybe. Would the outcome have been the same either way? I don't know. But what is significant is... maybe, just maybe your intentions did have an impact on the end result... and if so, then wasn't it worthwhile to put forth the effort to implore, pray, invoke, petition or do whatever you want to call it. And if not... no harm done.

Littlewood's Law

Hi all, today I wanted to share an intriguing concept called, "Littlewood's law". For everyone out there that doubts anything miraculous ever happens, well... "Littlewood's law, making certain suppositions, is explained as follows: a miracle is defined as an exceptional event of special significance occurring at a frequency of one in a million; during the hours in which a human is awake and alert, a human will experience one thing per second (for instance, seeing the computer screen, the keyboard, the mouse, the article, etc.); additionally, a human is alert for about eight hours per day; and as a result, a human will, in 35 days, have experienced, under these suppositions, 1,008,000 things. Accepting this definition of a miracle, one can be expected to observe one miraculous occurrence within the passing of every 35 consecutive days -- and therefore, according to this reasoning, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace." Of course, every one's definition of a miracle is different but the prejudiced opinions of the truly negative is consistently balanced by the subjective conceptions of the positive. Some believe that having children is a miracle but some don't and disregard it as simple biology. Some would say, the sun rising and setting every single day is purely commonplace and non fantastical but if you consider the possibility that if it didn't happen, we wouldn't be here right now. That seems pretty phenomenal and very much a benediction to me. Wherever you stand on the issue, don't allow your cynicism to prevent you from seeing what is always around us...the veritably divine.

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." ~ Albert Einstein