Miracles are like Puppies

The lotus blossoms springing from Buddha’s footprints.  The appearance of the Arabic word for Allah on a satellite picture of North Africa.  Jesus turning water into wine.  These examples and many others serve to remind us that there is something profoundly rebellious and beautiful that holds the tidy tapestry of cause and effect that organizes our daily lives. ​

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We see them as anomalies, things from either long ago, or oddities hidden in obscure web-sites of dubious credibility.  “They are rare and faraway (if they even exist at all),” we think. “They have nothing to do with me and my mortgage payment,” we say to ourselves as we go about the daily business of assuring survival for ourselves and those we love.

But the truth is, they are not so far away from us, these miracles.  In fact, we are one (or one of six billion individual ones).  Not in an airy-fairy-inspirational-meme type of way, but in a rational, quantifiable infographic-put-together-by-a-very credible scientist Dr. Ali Benazir, type of way.  You, yes you, the one reading this blog and feeling bloated from all the carbs you had at lunch you, are a certifiably, bodaciously luscious, big-tastic miracle.

I really hope you take a look at said infographic above, but let me break it down for you.  In order for you to be sitting there reading this and feeling gassy, you had to beat 1 to 10x 2,685,000 odds.  For those of you with a fear of numberee things, that means 10, followed by 2,685,000 zeroes after it.  I think that’s like a 10 quajillierillion or something (they probably haven’t made up a name for a number with those many zeroes after it yet, so I took the liberty to making one up myself; feel free to quote me when you use it in your peer-reviewed science journals, but remember my name ends with an “e”).  Anyway, it’s a lot. 

So if you, yourself are such a hella-huge miracle, why can’t your life be filled with more of them?  

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that with the power-invested in me by Go-Daddy, Weebly, Bowling Green State, University and my Mom, I now pronounce that you are.  The electricity that powers your device, the wi-fi that sends the information that started out as ephemeral musings in my head into the oh-so mysterious interweb, and back out into your head, yep that too. The fact that you received enough education to read this.  The fact that you even found this obscure little web-site, that’s really a miracle. For that matter, the fact that you woke up at 5:00am, didn’t hit the snooze button, and also actually managed to exercise is a miracle.  Your not-overdrawn checking account, miracle. The people who ask you about your day and really seem to want to know the answer; these are all miracles.  And the more you celebrate them, the more they’ll seem to pop up into your life, like little slobbery smooches of grace. 

Here’s an awesome poem from Thich Nhat Hanh that says the same thing, but with less words.
Our true home is in the present moment.
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To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Peace is all around us in the world and in nature, and within us;
It is in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of practice.

So, pet, praise and scratch your miracles behind their ears.  You’ll be delighted by the lengths to which they will go to fill your life with joy.

To what miracles will you pay attention today?