I spent the afternoon on one fine Sunday potting and repotting plants and fruits and vegetables in my courtyard.  Then at night I went outside, lit some candles, sat in my comfortable chair, listened to music, had several beers and Bourbons—and enjoyed looking at my new tomato plants by candlelight.

Two things made me want to capture this tableau:  One, it's pretty; I love the way the candlelight softly illuminates that one tomato plant and throws its shadow against the wall.  Two, this tableau gets me to thinking about the incredibly magical details of our lives, the truly sacred moments that we come to take for granted.

Think about this:  At one point in time none of these things—the table; the candleholders; the candles; the pots for the plants; the house; me—none of these things existed.  I did not used to be on this planet.  And then I was born.  Our house here did not exist…there was only woods where our house sits now.  Our home was built and came into being.  The table on which the pots and candleholders sit is of recent manufacture, as are the candles and the candleholders.  A few short years ago none of this existed.  Now, here they are.

That tomato plant whose shadow is cast against the wall...at one time the seed for that plant did not even exist.  It came into being, from another plant, and it grew this plant, and this plant will produce—from flowers that do not yet exist—delicious tomatoes which I will eat and absorb into my body.  Miraculous.

All of those elements came together, elements that were not in existence previously, and they traveled through time and space to come together to produce this unique tableau on this night, a tableau which will never again exist in exactly this same form; and at some point in time will cease to exist altogether.

The plant will have served its purpose and it will die and be gone.  The candles will have burned up.  The table will grow old and rusty and rickety and be tossed out.  And at some point—I hope many, many, many years from now—the reality is that I will be gone too.

As I pondered all of this it seemed only fitting that I should make my best possible effort to pay homage to this incredible revelation—so that it could be honored—and that both I and others could ponder these miracles again and again, for I have truly witnessed—not the commonplace—but the sacred and the miraculous in this night.


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