This is the Miracle

Plus a Podcast Episode!

Do you ever find yourself waiting around for a miracle? Waiting for some future event to swoop in and salvage the present? I do. Sometimes, I hover in limbo, anticipating the miraculous moment when medical research and treatments will catch up to my lived experience. Other times, I grow impatient with the slow roll of science and yearn instead for divine intercession or perhaps some Jedi mind trick that will finally vanquish long Covid once and for all.

I was pondering this yearning for miracles a few days ago (in the shower, if you must know; bathrooms are prime locations for epiphanies), when these words arrived like a flood of light: “This is the miracle.”

This is the miracle. This warm water, rushing down my skin, is the miracle. This body, just as it is today, is the miracle. These months of transformative personal growth are the miracle. My deepened love for myself, gratitude for life, and sense of connection with others (including you) are miracles. My growing capacity for authenticity? Miraculous. All of this is the miracle—one grand, ever unfolding miracle. There’s nothing to wait around for; so much is contained in each moment, including this one right now.

This way of thinking is transformative (miraculous, one might say). If I view this moment now as a miracle, then I see the opportunities for growth and love rather than just the reasons for fear or despair. If I embrace this moment now as miraculous, then I notice and celebrate the small pleasures, wonders, and joys that it contains. This thought nourishes the trust that light sits alongside every patch of darkness, which of course doesn’t make darkness easy, but it does make it bearable.

Is this moment objectively a miracle? I don’t know. Nor do I need to know. By every metric that I can experience, the belief that this moment is a miracle makes it so. This one itty bitty belief miraculously transforms my inner landscape, lighting me up with gratitude and hope, no matter what shenanigans my body is up to. How’s that for a Jedi mind trick?

Try it out for just one day (or hour, or minute), and let me know me how it goes! Allow yourself to experience each moment, no matter how difficult or mundane, as if it’s a miracle, and see what unfolds.

If you need a boost of positivity or an injection of playfulness, listen to episode two of the Corona Café podcast, an interview with Amy Sangha, a nurse from British Columbia who was sick for seven months from Covid-19. Our conversation absolutely overflows with Amy’s generosity, spunk, humor, and optimism. I hope it lifts you like it lifted me!  

P.S. We have quite a few new subscribers this week, thanks to the link in this story from LEX18. It’s nice to have some fellow Kentuckyians here. If you are a long-hauler in or near Kentucky, reply to this email and say hello! I’d love to know you.