October 06, 2026

Sparks Lane, Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee

I am perennially amazed to be here, now. How did that happen? How did I get from there, then to here, now? What were the chances of that happening? The same thing applies to you and your life. What are the chances that you would be reading this here, now? The odds were definitely against us being together in this way. We all are living miracles. Are we all predestined or accidental? I am going with blind luck. We all had to be somewhere. Why not here, now? It would be here, now, wherever we happened to be, and wherever we would be would be just as miraculous as being here, now. So, it is our perspective, perception, projection that sees the miraculous in the hum-drum everyday. Take our interpretation of the situation out of the picture and it is all suddenly just the way it is with nothing special about it. So. Special or Not Special? It is all in how we look at what we see. And that, too, is a miracle! Or not! How are things really? Who is to say?

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

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