Thankful for Miracles

As we approach Thanksgiving, I was reminded of this post I did a while back. It's one of my favorite posts. Ever since I wrote it, not a day goes by when I don't mutter the word "miracle." Some days I say it louder than others, but really, each day includes one miraculous event or person or bit of nature that stops me in my tracks and astounds me.

Wishing you all a joyful Thanksgiving and a season full of miracles.

I was at the bookstore a while back and at the checkout I saw these little silver discs with writing on them. It said:

You can live as if everything is a miracle. –Einstein

Which I thought was just great, so I followed my impulse and bought one and slipped the disc in the pocket of my jacket.

A few weeks later, I wore the jacket again, put my hand in the pocket and found the disc. I pulled it out and read it again. It said:

You can live as if nothing is a miracle.

“That’s not very inspiring,” I thought. “What kind of spiritual impulse buy was this?” I stuck the disc back in my pocket.

A couple of days later, scrounging for change to feed the parking meter I pulled out the damn thing again, and read:

You can live as if everything is a miracle.

What the? I turned the disc over and realized there are two sides to it, of course. (see post on the Middle Age Brain to fully understand how this can happen). The whole quote is:

You can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

Thank you, Einstein.

I loved that there were two sides to this, and loved the fact that I got so mixed up about it. Because in my real life, do get baffled by that fact. I walk around like everything is good. fine, okay, but don’t often take the time to really look, to wonder, to shake my head and say, “Wow, what a miracle.”

So, one day, I decided to live as if everything was a miracle.

I started out the day with the usual long commute, but on this day there was a really bad accident. Three cars, lots of crushed metal. Yet there were no ambulances and everyone was out of their cars, looking safe. “What a miracle no one was hurt,” I thought.

A miracle, see, this is good. Let’s see what other miracles this day will hold.

I got to work and it dawned on me how, in a time when there are so many people who are struggling with the lack of work, it’s a amazing that I have this work that supports me and my family. Miracle.

I started writing and cranked out some really good pieces. I am so grateful that I have been given a gift that enables me to put sentences together and have them make sense, but on this day, I held it as a miracle.

Later, I went out to lunch to see what miracles I could find over chicken salad. At the café, I spied an adorable baby near me, and immediately started to make faces to get the baby to smile. The adorable baby’s mother told me that she and her husband were in the process of adopting this little seventeen-month old baby. She said they’d had her as a foster child since she was six months old, and the baby’s biological mother had just decided she can’t care for her. The Mom said, “We’ve wanted a baby for a long time, and if all goes well, by the end of the week, she’ll be ours.”

Honestly. Miracle, miracle, miracle.

Back to the office where the drudgery of the afternoon is broken up by a chat with my wonderful friend who makes me laugh every time we talk. Friendship, miracle. Laughter, bonus miracle.

Get in the car to drive and home and then get stuck in traffic, which is truly stretching the everything is a miracle theory. But, since I am stuck in traffic, I get to hear this story on NPR about a British DJ called Bonobo. He creates some really beautiful music which I’ve never heard before, so miracle.

And then I am home. I pour a glass of wine, and we que up iTunes to play my daughter E’s new favorite album, the sound track of Parent Trap 2 (which is really good, small miracle). I make dinner while my husband B and E play games and the dog stretches out on the floor. I sip my wine and dinner cooks. The Loving Spoonful sings “Do You Believe In Magic” and we all share our stories of the day.

And in that moment, I give thanks for the miracle of the food on our table, the warmth of our home, the goodness of stories and the simple yet glorious miracle that we all made it safely back to our table once again.

You can live as if everything is a miracle.

I highly recommend it.