Spring is indeed a time of palpable and visible miracles, as are the other seasons of the year. Crocuses rocket out of the ground not long after overnight snowfalls that often melt the following morning. Robins and northern flickers contest favorite spots on lawns for emerging worms and insects. It’s easier now for most people to wake up with the sunrise, and stay up past sunset again, and there’s a lot less frost to scrape off car windshields in the morning. In our own backyard, rhubarb is starting to poke out of the ground, and it won’t be long before dandelions reign over parts of the lawn for a while.

Saint Augustine had it right when he observed that “Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”

Miraculously, nature shows us that nearly everything depends on chance, on timing, on inspired action or intuition, on recognizing patterns, cycles, flows and opportunities. It also reveals how much we are not meant to live this thing called life alone. We all have an important role to play. We are all part of the natural community.

Nature’s a risk taker and we are hard-wired to be so, too.

The rewards of risk-taking are universally uncertain and unknowable, yet the risks of not changing or evolving portend a death knell for all of us. We stop growing. We dig in tenaciously, hoping someone or something else will change, yet ironically and miraculously, our entire world changes once we allow ourselves the miracle of seeing and experiencing things differently.

Nature is constantly reinventing itself and changing form-think of a caterpillar en route to its becoming a butterfly. The natural world doesn’t play favorites or take sides, yet it does seem to encourage innovation and experimentation. What’s the true cost of not being connected to nature’s wisdom, encouragement, support, and infinite wellspring of creativity and possibilities?

What miracles are we missing out on in life because we perceive and believe we are too old or busy, there’s not enough time, the timing’s not right, the money’s not there, or we need someone’s permission before we commit ourselves to changing?

All you need is to allow yourself a tiny shift in perception, hope and belief. Once you take that leap, once you make an unwavering commitment, nature will always be there to meet, greet and support you, no matter where your feet are.

 

Note: An earlier version of this article, “Natural Miracles,” was first published here on my blog on April 10. 2014.