Everyday Miracles

I’ve been playing with expanding my reality to include miracles. The everyday kind. Those moments of delight when something unexpected happens.

I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

When something out of the ordinary happens that breaks through the bubble of the familiar and connects you with a vaster reality.

It’s like the universe presents you with a flash card, saying “And here’s another possibility.”

These moments may be brief, but they are powerful. They expand your heart, fill you with effervescence, and your analytical mind goes quiet. All there is is delight, wonder and gratitude.

I first heard this understanding of miracles (though I have paraphrased it here based on my own personal exploration) in a course taught by Lauren Skye, founder and co-director of the Inner Connection Institute.

(As an aside, I’ve been playing with calling them “moments of delight” because the word “miracle” still carries a little charge for me. There’s some old flavor of religious control around who is and is not worthy of experiencing miracles. I’m working my way into fully owning the word miracle for myself.)

And as I’ve been on this exploration of everyday miracles, I’ve been taking inventory of the ones I remember. Giving them more space in my awareness, validating the gifts. In the process, I’ve noticed they seem to show up for me in two different contexts.

The first is the “prayers answered” kind. When I’m in a state of struggle and asking the universe for some kind of support — whether it be guidance or encouragement or inspiration. Those are times when I’m raw and open. A bit surrendered. Perhaps that surrendered state makes me available for noticing and receiving the miracles.

Like, one evening last summer, when my battle with insomnia led me to my bookshelf. I picked the first book to jump out at me, and there, in those pages, was precisely the wisdom and inspiration I needed to support me through a challenging time.

Or the time when, out of the blue and without any information about what was going on in my world, a friend texted me a picture of a tree growing out of a rock and seemingly thriving against all odds, with the caption “perseverance.”

Or the countless times that I’ve been out on a hike, working through a question or decision, and am gifted with a solitary purple flower among a field of brown grass, or a lone monarch butterfly dances across my path, or a hawk alights on the branches above me, as if to validate my unfolding.

The more I take inventory, the more I realize how abundant these miracles are. (Grateful!)

And then there are the “there I was minding my own business” kind of miracles that arrive, out of the blue and apropos of nothing (or are they?!).

Like earlier this summer. It was a Wednesday afternoon. I was taking a break between projects, sitting on the sofa and scrolling through FaceBook on my iPhone. A review of a newly released book called “Bird Therapy” caught my attention. At the precise moment that I clicked on the Amazon link to order the book, a bird flew into the house through an open window. I sat there for a moment, stunned, trying to take it in. Did that just happen? (Naturally, I collected the friendly little junco who had perched on a window sill in the next room and returned him to the great outdoors.)

That moment continues to take my breath away.

One of the greatest pleasures of these moments for me is that my analytical mind goes quiet. It’s like this sudden expansion of reality is beyond my present range of logic.

If I can allow myself to remain in that state for a just a tiny while, focusing on the delight and gratitude of the experience, then I receive a tremendous healing. I don’t have to explain it or dissect it or categorize it. It just is.

So, this is what I’m playing with. Expanding my everyday reality to include miracles and to receive the healings they offer without having to understand or analyze them. And by sharing here, validating them, giving them space in my awareness, I’m opening the door for more.

What everyday miracles would you care to share and validate? I would love to hear about them. If you feel called, please share in the comments below.

May your days be filled with an abundance of miracles!