Brother Steindl-Rast's A GOOD DAY

Today, I invite you to take a small moment, just for you, to gentle your breath as you read this piece by 96 year old Austrian-American Benedictine monk,  BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST.  

It is called

A GOOD DAY . . .

“You think that this is just another day in your life?
It’s not just another day.
It’s the one day that is given to you – today.
It’s given to you.
It’s a gift.

It’s the only gift that you have right now
and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.
If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is…

If you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life
and the very last day
then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes, and be surprised that you have eyes you can open.
That incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for our pure enjoyment.
Look at the sky.
We so rarely look at the sky.
We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment, with clouds coming and going.
We just think of the weather, and even with the weather we don’t think of all the many nuances of weather.
We just think of “good weather” and “bad weather.”
This day, right now, with its unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again...
The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same as it is right now.
Open your eyes.  Look at that.

Look at the faces of people whom you meet.
Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom.
Not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors.
We all go back so far.
And in this present moment on this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world flows together and meets you here like a life giving water if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us.
You flip a switch and there is electric light.
You turn a faucet and there is warm water, and cold water, and drinkable water.
a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.
So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart.

And so I am wishing you will open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you.

That everyone you will meet on this day will be blessed by you,
just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence.

Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you.

Then it will REALLY be a good day.”

For an inspiring start to your day:

Play video below or CLICK HERE 

to listen to Steindl-Rast himself, as he recites A GOOD DAY, in this lovely video.

Who is Brother David Steindl-Rast?

CLICK HERE

to learn more about this fabulous soul,
known as the “grandfather of gratitude”.