Living “as though”:

Einstein knew about more than science

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein

Photo by Elliot Mann on Unsplash

“Why hello Dorothy,” my aunt whispers to her glowing reflection in the small television screen attached to her hospital bed in the rehabilitation center.

It’s a joke my mom and aunt often use, calling their reflections by their mother’s name.

“You are lookin’ good now. You are doing this.”

This quiet moment that has sounded a bright note in my saddest thoughts over the past few weeks. If my aunt, whose world was just turned upside down by a stroke, can talk to herself this way, what does that mean for the rest of us?

The best answer I’ve found is in two Albert Einstein quotes that have been eerie and deep comfort to me over the years.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

These aren’t your average lovely words strung together. They are wisdom delivered from someone who saw deeper into the nature of reality than anyone else in his time and came away speaking of mystery and miracle thinking.

What has always stood out to me is that Einstein was so unsure. He knew more about the universe than I ever will, and still, he ran up against mystery. He does not talk about miracles; he talks about acting “as though” ordinary life is a miracle. He talks about radical choice.  

Why do I love this so much? I love this so much.

It’s the way my aunt keeps tilting her lively eyes and cheeks full of good color up to the smiling faces of her visitors. It’s the choice to live in gratitude that I keep seeing her make these past few weeks, through the struggle of sleepless nights and hours of therapy each day. She makes it over and over again.  

This is not a way any of us can live all of the time. But it’s always a way.

It’s a freestanding invitation in the dark.