A few years ago, I broke my right arm and thus entered (in a most unseasonal time in the lead-up to what’s always a busy spring) a period of enforced inactivity and inadvertent mindfulness quite unlike my usual frenzied multitasking.

So this is how my thinking started toI am usually far too busy to sense such subtle shifts evolve. I started to notice moments of grace between people, myself and others—and between myself and my Creator, and myself and nature.

I am usually far too busy to sense such subtle shifts. I usually focus more on the more powerful nuclear reactions, where there is a very evident immediate effect. But who is to say that these subtle moments of grace are not at least as powerful, if not more so?

What do I mean by a moment of grace? A moment where the light shines through. Where more is possible than just what is. Where we are lead to a place of deep recognition of our part in something greater.

A moment in time but beyond time. Where heaven and earth meet.

And what is the thoroughfare? An act of goodness and kindness or a smile. A moment of deep recognition exchanged between friends or strangers. Perhaps an act of kindness unnoticed by anyone down below, recognized only from the One above us. The light streaming through a lace curtain revealing intricate changing patterns on the wall of a person confined to bed. A deep breath when nothing but the shallowest had been possible before. Finding a new shoot emerging from a seemingly dead tree.

You will notice that none of these areI could remember more and more of them truly solitary. All involve interaction with another, with nature, with light, with G‑d. Even moments truly within ourselves contain the blueprint of something deeper.

I then had the idea to write an article portraying some of the most powerful moments of grace through my long and eventful life. I realized that I could remember more and more of them—far too many to write until I came to a sense of one long continuum of moments of grace extending up to this moment and the into the future.

A future full of possibility of moments of grace. In fact, the whole purpose I was brought into this world in the first place . . .