We Want Someone Else to Act-Daily Meditation 1.19.23
Today’s quotation:
We want someone else to act. But miracles aren’t what other people do. They’re what each of us does. They’re what happens when ordinary people take extraordinary action. To be a miracle doesn’t mean you have to tackle global problems. It means making a difference in your own living room, cubicle, neighborhood, and community.-Regina Brett Be the Miracle
Today’s Meditation:
I think that we have a major misconception about what miracles are. As children, we were taught things like Biblical miracles that happen to only a select few people and are witnessed by very few. A miracle, though, isn’t necessarily about divine intervention–instead, it can not include God at all. Let’s look at one of the definitions of the word. We see “a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences,” leaving many doors open for us.
Someone we know may consider it a miracle that a bag of groceries appeared on their porch when they most needed it. A miracle may be that person who offers to tutor the student doing poorly in math when that person is about to give up altogether. A miracle may be having someone take a person’s work shift so that person can do something significant to him or her personally.
We can all be miracle workers, though most of us have probably spent a lot of time and effort convincing ourselves that we don’t have it within us to be so. I remember raking the leaves in our yard and noticing our neighbor hadn’t gotten to hers. I had an extra half hour available, and I love raking leaves, so I had no problem going over there and taking care of them. She considered it a miracle because she had been dreading the task and couldn’t find any time to do it, and she hadn’t even asked anyone to do it. It made me feel outstanding to have a positive impact on a neighbor who was a charming and kind person.
Miracles are within our power to create and share. We can make them happen daily on a microscopic scale, and the small scale is significant to many people on this planet. I want to keep my eyes, mind, and heart open to opportunities to work miracles in life, for doing so will make my life much more special. Sometimes, even the best miracles are the smallest and the least expected.
Questions to consider:
What kinds of miracles might you have the chance to create today? For whom?
Why do we keep a narrow definition of a miracle for so long?
What are some of the most important miracles that have happened to you (using the above definition)?
For further thought:
People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air but on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle that we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child–our own two eyes. All is a miracle.-Thich Nhat Hanh
If you missed yesterday’s Daily Meditation, you can see it here.
