Gifts from the Universe

Someone gave me some really beautiful gifts this weekend; gifts that I might actually have overlooked and missed altogether had I not been paying attention. It was cold and rainy for most of the week, but Saturday dawned clear and sunny and not too cold to enjoy the outdoors. So off I went for a walk. And it was wonderful to be outside again. I’m really a fair-weather outdoor person… if it’s not nice out I will not venture out of my comfy places unless I have to. So long stretches of miserable weather tend to give me cabin fever.

As I was walking, I began to take note of a number of little “surprises” along my route. I lost count of the number of woolly bear caterpillars I saw, a small sparrow sat on a fence post and sang to me, and I even saw two mice chase each other through the grass at the side of the path. I actually heard them squeak, which is what attracted my attention to them in the first place. It was like they went out of their way to be noticed by me.

I was so enchanted by the wildlife around me that day and I was flooded by this immense feeling of gratitude to be able to see and experience it. It was at that point that I started wondering about how many little gifts, just like these, that I’m being given every single day, most of which I probably don’t even notice.

So then I started thinking. What if all these little things, these little bits of magic that we see over the course of a day, what if they really are gifts from the Universe? What if they’re the sign of that Something Bigger out there, delightedly finding ways to hide presents for us to find, just for the sheer joy of seeing us smile or hearing us laugh when we find them? The thought made me so happy, and I looked up at the sky with an enormous “thank you” in my heart.

The next time I go out for a walk, I’ll be looking for these gifts from the Universe. I know they’ll be there. And I suspect that the Universe is probably watching with bated breath to see if I find them, and how I’ll react to them. I bet it’s really happy when it sees how much people enjoy the little surprises and tokens of affection it so lovingly puts out there for us all to find.