The world is full of wonderful things

Last week I discovered a remarkable thing. All the As in traditional alphabet blocks are red. All the Bs are green. Cs are yellow and Ds are blue.

All the Gs, which are yellow, have an I on the reverse and it's either red or blue. But not every I has a G on the other side, more have a green V.

It is remarkable to me that the colors rarely vary from one manufacturer to another and from one generation to another. Granted, some manufacturers have taken liberties with block design, color and size but the traditional set keeps to the tried and true colors. No purple, no orange, pink or black. This realization brought up so many thoughts and questions.

Who made this decision and why? Does it have to do with the physical manufacturing process? We've always done it this way. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Are they made in other alphabets (Hebrew, Cyrillic, Chinese, Arabic, Devanagari)? Are the colors consistent in those sets like they are in the traditional Latin set? How have I never noticed this before? How many other things have been right in front of my eyes for my whole life that I've simply missed?

While I was delighted by this unexpected revelation and intrigued by a fun mental exercise, the two final questions in my list can serve as a reminder -- to notice the wonderful things that you easily overlook day in, day out.

This week, try to find the bird whose song you hear. Notice the plants and trees on your next walk or run and learn to identify them. Recognize when a child masters a new skill no matter how small. Be grateful for your pet's unconditional love. Think of the last thing you were excited about buying and remember how you felt when it was brand new -- love it like that again. Be grateful to be alive -- take a big deep breath in, stretch your arms up, and exhale while swooping them down and pulling energy toward your heart.

Peace and love to you this week.