On Miracles
Not all miracles feel good in the moment. We get attached to people, places, things despite our best efforts to remain stoic, independent, enlightened. That is the goal of the elevated soul, right? To be completely without attachment to worldly affairs?
Sometimes it feels like that version of spiritual enlightenment is a strange byproduct of voracious capitalism and/or broken patriarchal culture. The only way to survive is to train ourselves to just notice our pain and endure despite or beyond it. I suspect we all feel isolated right now in part because even the healing in our culture has incorporated a commitment to relentless independence.
Miracles may not be perfection arriving like a winged princess to sprinkle fairy dust or wave a wand and sort all our BLEEP out. Miracles might just be the next step in our evolution, the challenge we need next to move on from the previous once, the new change we need to march closer to genuine faith.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes people or jobs or chances show up and they very much smack of God finally delivering on some promises, and in those instances, we should be sure to give credit where credit is due. By that I mean exalt the BLEEP out of Good (or God) and be over the top when it comes to our gratitude. God (or Good) loves that BLEEP.
But other times, we can pray our asses off for a miracle and when it arrives, many of us STILL manage to give it the side-eye as if it’s not good enough or we are skeptical, because it isn’t the miracle we imagined. That’s like getting mad at family or friends for getting us the wrong kind of Rolex watch or Ferrari. Maybe they got us a Timex or a Honda Corolla, when we didn’t have BLEEP to start with. Some of us still manage to be ungrateful, but God (or Good) has to start somewhere, people.
Sometimes, when I think about manifestation or intention or attraction, I think about all the cynics out there who are like suuuurrrre, we can think and pray our way to a better life. But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to faith, we have to start somewhere. We can’t just pray and the next day win the lottery in life, because then we can just as easily chalk everything up to luck or chance. Faith is about building a better life with Good (or God) through commitment and consistency, day in, day out. It is a long-term commitment we make to believe in a better life and world, and we have to be active participants in that through our thoughts, actions, and choices, which is basically all manifestation, intention, or attraction really is.
In its simplest form, I hope this writing and this recounting of some of my experiences with cultivating faith just encourages others to start small, but start somewhere. Faith doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, in some ways it’s much better if it isn’t. My life isn’t perfect or easy all the time, but it has gotten better with faith. I feel stronger and I believe in a positive future. I have new coping skills that help me stay present and hopeful. I believe that what I need in life is delivered through prayer and meditation, and I believe that those things, people, paths that do not serve me or are not Good for me are removed for a reason, even if the removal is extraordinarily painful.
My framework for life used to be built on anger, cynicism, fear, and probably bitterness. Now, more often than not, it is based in faith, hope, and a belief in a basic Good (or God) that will work for me if I work with it. The more time I spend cultivating faith, the more I suspect that life is built on thousands of little miracles. It’s our job to see them for what they truly are, believe in them, and work with God (or Good) through prayer and meditation to build the life we truly want for ourselves.