YOUR BEST ADVICE IN 4 WORDS OR LESS

“Your best advice in 4 words or less,”  asked the first post on my Facebook feed this morning.  

The awesome human being asking for responses to this is friend of mine. She started a Facebook support group in April, after realising that many of her friends and work colleagues were consumed with fear and a sense of doom about COVID.

I immediately got my fingers out to start counting my all the words of advice I have ever followed or given in my life. None were as concise as 4 words. So I put this task on my mental To-Do list to come back to later in the day. 

Last week I was walking home from the train station. Next to one of the station exits along the highway is a small field covered in grass. Due to Singapore’s large foreign workforce still being quarantined, all the grass, hedges and trees of Singapore are overgrown. In the space of just three months, Singapore’s nature has been set free from the bondage of being forcibly manicured and is reclaiming control of its landscape. It is something I am noticing everywhere and it makes me smile. 

Nature 1. Humans 0.
May there be much more of it to come across our Planet. 

Before lunch today, I headed out to the supermarket to pick up some things. On my way home, I saw a mother walking along the pathway to the shopping centre. Her toddler, looking totally adorable in his face shield, stopped suddenly to notice the overgrowth of dandelions popping out from the unkempt grassy strip that lined the pathway. 

With wonderment in his eyes, he was grabbing the dandelions and examining them on his own. He was totally transfixed by them as he ripped them from the ground and held them in his hands. 

I stopped to watch him. It was very clear to me that this was the first time he had ever seen a dandelion. Why would he ever have seen this weed before if the grass of Singapore is always kept so trim and neat?

And then the 4 words came to me:

Look For Daily Miracles

I practice gratitude. I’m not great on affirmations, but I do take time every day to acknowledge the many blessings in my life. Since I started taking the time to meditate daily on the things I am grateful for, I have experienced life more fully and more positively. 

It is challenging to maintain positivity with all the news from around the world. But I realised today that when we zoom down from the macro to the micro and pay attention to the wonderment around us, we will start to notice an abundance of daily miracles. 

When you look for daily miracles, they will be presented to you. That little boy got to experience a  interaction with nature that was only possible because of something bad like COVID. I only got to be part of that interaction because I was not on my phone and distracted, but I was present to see it unfold. 

The process of looking is active. When you look, you will be amazed what you notice and what extra micro experiences you can have in life. 

I believe that now more than ever we need to be looking for daily miracles. Daily miracles are all around us and are there to lift our spirits.