"I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child--our own two eyes. All is a miracle."

-Thich Nhat Hanh, "Miracle of Mindfulness"
From "365 Buddha: Daily Meditations," edited by Jeff Schmidt.
Reprinted by arrangement with Tarcher/Putnam, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.