July 12
Miracles
I am thankful for miracles. Miracles are those things that don't happen very often (or else they woudn't be called miracles) but when they do, they hit us in the face as very unusual, spectacular, or very rare. However, miracles are present all around us and we generally take them for granted. Life, for example, is one of the greatest miracles ever "invented". Just imagine the improbability of life, and yet it is everwhere around us in the form of single celled organisms, insects, animals, fish, plants, and humans. As a biochemist, I am amazed at the intricacies of life, the completely amazing integration of events and controls that occur in our biochemistry to produce our daily living. The three dimensional folding of proteins and enzymes allow them to function as they do. A single amino acid substitution can create havoc in that folding and make a lesser functioning enzyme or protein. Witness, sickle cell anemia, in which a single amino acid substitution in the beta chain of the hemoglobin protein produces abnormal folding, and thus, abnormal function. There are other substitutions which are not life sustainable. So, although these mutations occur, for the most part only occassionally, they just go to show how everything has to be just right for life to happen. I am continually amazed by the miracle of life.
This is a photo of a baby dove (called squab or chick) behind an unhatched egg. My family watched closely as an adult dove, whom we named Dovey, built a nest on top of a storage box in my carport, laid her eggs, two of which eventually hatched. I climbed up on a ladder to take this photo. A week or so later Dovey disappeared, leaving behind her baby chicks. Later, they disappeared. Perhaps her leaving was the impetus that caused them to leave the nest also. Oh, the miracles of life!
miracles
miracles
some say
happen every day
all you have to do
is learn to pray
the proper way
you’ve got to believe
but miracles
wouldn’t be
if they were
as common
as you and me
the laws of nature
are seldom broken
can’t you see
but a well placed miracle
is motivating
and captivating
it’s invigorating
and regenerating
it strengthens
faith
and love
you’ve got to believe
miracles
surround us
and envelop us
every day
they stare at us
and slap us in the face
but we go on
and fly on
oblivious
lost in our reveries
you’ve got to believe
miracles
are classified
according to their art
there’s healing
there’s saving
there’s matters of the heart
rescue from danger
there’s visions inspired
and improbable coincidence
but the greatest miracle
which is heaven sent
the miracle of life we are lent
you’ve got to believe.
© rt tulley