“Life becomes precious and more special to us when we look for the little everyday miracles and get excited about the privileges of simply being human” ~Tim Hansel

I celebrated my birthday this month. I can’t help but feel that it’s a special day. My gift to myself is usually a day off, which means I get to do what I want. My special day ends up being a day full of conversation, food and connecting with family.

This year was no different. I talked to family and had wonderful food at home. Then I visited my mother for a nice cup of tea, and proceeded to wander around a nursery for two hours. We indulged our senses in every possible way. We touched the plants, smelled and looked, read labels and talked about them. It was a blast.

One can say my birthday this year was the same as every other year—a connection with loved ones and a peaceful experience.

Except for one thing … on my birthday, I paused for a second and thought: I wonder how many people are celebrating their birthday right this minute. I wonder how many people share the same birthday with me. What are people up to right now? I feel special today. How many people feel the same?

The next logical thing was to Google my questions and find out. But before I share with you my findings, please take a moment and count (as if you’re counting seconds):

1 2 3

By the time you were done counting, 12 children were born, giving us 12 new unique stories.

In the same three seconds, 6 souls said goodbye—leaving behind loved ones who will mourn their loss and honor their memory.

Every second, an average of 4 children join our world and 2 fellow humans pass on. Please take a moment and think about it.

Every day more than a million people celebrate their birthday. We welcome more than 300,000 newborns and we say goodbye to more than 100,000 members of our human family who left their print on this planet.

Life doesn’t stop for a fraction of a second. Between the cycles of birth and death, life continues to dance. Every moment is someone’s birthday, someone’s anniversary, someone’s graduation, someone passing on, someone getting married, getting divorced, being laid off, getting a new job, traveling to a new destination or coming home after an adventure. Someone lost, someone won. Someone got what he wanted and another didn’t.

Life is never boring. It’s evolving even when you think it’s standing still. Every second of our life is special to someone. Life is unfolding within and around us. All we need to do is pay attention and open our minds and hearts.

No one is too big to make the cycle of life stop or too small to not matter. All of us—collectively—are the beat of life.

How can you use every special second of life?

That is entirely up to you. You can do what feels right for you—at this moment. You can choose to love, celebrate, honor, create, share, give, laugh, cry, walk, run, sleep, sit, meditate, write or anything else.

The only thing that matters is: know that every moment of your life is unique and special. Everything you do is what makes this life what it is today. It’s what keeps this world going. Every single one of us, every moment of our lives is adding to life—intentionally or unintentionally.

Every living being is an integral part of the cycle of creation—of life’s transformation.

You don’t need to do anything out of the ordinary. The only thing you need is a simple shift in how you perceive your world and relationships. Look beyond the layers of noise and distractions and notice how special everything is.

Greet everyone as if this is his or her special moment. Honor yourself by allowing yourself to feel special in every possible way.

Life on earth happens because we all make it happen—second by second, thought by though, action by action.

It’s easy to forget how magical every little thing we do is. Maybe that’s why we need time as a metric—to remind ourselves of the magnitude of our growth and evolution in this moment and every moment … every special moment.

And even when we feel we’re not doing something magical, it’s comforting to know that someone else is doing so. We are all one!

I love you my dear friends and readers. May you celebrate every special moment and cherish every special memory and love your life—our life—in a very special way.

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