Conversation between husband and wife during dinner out this week - reflecting upon what an amazing piece of engineering/creation the brain is - Here we sit knowing exactly where we are geographically, what city, what zip code, which table we're seated at, how many servers there are in the room, drinking our water, seeing the wind pick up outside the window, tasting the wine, smelling the food, entertaining each other, seeing the rose on the table has drooped and should be changed, wondering how many people have touched the salt and pepper shakers, the fresh (?) silverware and napkins, the art on the wall, the color of the carpet and upholstery - all of this being recognized rather simply and simultaneously through our brains with no real effort on our part.

Conversation continued through dinner and then cited in a church forum today - that the wonder of our brain and body coordination can only be classified as miracle. How else can the brain's extraordinary power be explained?

NASA has experimented for years with perfecting propulsion, projection, cause and affect, failure and success of its rocket launches; yet, on a college basketball court, with screaming fans, bright lights, terrible acoustics, whistling referees, fog horns blaring, buzzers sounding, two teams of young men charge from one end of the court to the other dribbling, passing, wrestling for possession of the ball, until one player, having run, pivoted, whirled, and jumped, seemingly all in one motion, hurls the ball in the perfect trajectory to place that object in the middle of a ring mounted high off the ground. Once more a miracle of the brain that cannot be easily explained other than - miracle.

Would that we were more thankful for the miracles of life that we see before our eyes each day and take for granted.