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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Steve Taylor.

Good Morning.

It’s easy to take our bodies for granted. After all, we’ve always had them. We might even have an uneasy relationship with our bodies, feeling dissatisfied because of health issues or our appearance.

As a psychologist, I’ve done a lot of research with people who have recovered from life-threatening predicaments, such as serious illness, accidents, or severe addiction. In doing so, they often gain a sense of the preciousness of their bodies. One woman who survived a terrorist attack told me that, as she recovered, she felt ‘in awe of my body.… I made a vow that I would look after myself and feed my body good food.’ A man who recovered from severe depression told me that now he was ‘aware of all the different parts of my body. It was as if my soul had been occupying this body for my entire life, but I never gave a second thought to what it felt like, until now.’

But we don’t need to go through a life-threatening situation to stop taking our bodies for granted. We can remind ourselves of the millions of processes that are taking place inside us every second of the day: all the organs that are working hard to sustain and regulate our health, all the structures that are playing a vital role to protect us from injury and illness; all the microcosmic processes working tirelessly and selflessly on our behalf, to maintain our lives every single moment of the day.

Our bodies may not be working perfectly. But you don’t need to have a perfect relationship with someone to value them. Today, let’s pause for a moment, to contemplate the miracle of our bodies, and to send gratitude to them, for keeping us alive and conscious.

Blessings.