New and good.

It’s a Monday.  And you know what that means, right?  A post concerning a Monday Miracle.

The trouble is, I have not been able to think of a miracle about which to write.  So, I had this thought:  Maybe Monday Miracles could alternate with Monday Moans.

Plenty of material there, right?

Then I saw a butterfly flutter by right outside my upstairs window.  It flitted in and out of the branches of my neighbor’s oak tree which overhangs my property–by a lot!

I thought, There’s a miracle.

The truth is twice a year we get quite a number of butterflies.  I’m not really up on butterfly habits, but I know that some species of them migrate at least once a year.  I don’t know if they live long enoug to head back, or what.  But we get a lot of butterflies, and they’re pretty, and it’s fun.

So there’s that.

And the oak tree is another miracle.  The Southern Live Oak is a beautiful tree.

There are lots of miracles all around.  It’s just that they’re here all the time.  And they seem sort of small and mundane.  Everybody likes butterflies, don’t they?

The truth, however, is that most of the “moans” I can come up with are fairly small and mundane also.  A hundred years from now will it really matter that I haven’t yet figured out what to do about the fogged window glass?

So, my question is:  Why is it easier to come up with the bad things?  The petty, pesky annoying things?  Rather than the good things?

Some quirk in the human brain–or, perhaps, only in how we’ve been conditioned by our society makes many of us focus on the hardships and challenges more than the joys and achievements.

I once participated in a program that started every meeting with “What’s new and good?” and ended with “What are you looking forward to?” because we do focus so often on the negative.  Not a bad plan.  Not a bad plan at all.

What’s new and good right now is the fact that I’ve remembered this.

And the butterflies.