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Sign-seekers
are what we humans are. We’re
lonely, and scared, and bewildered.
“Confounded”
accurately describes us too; we
don’t know where we came from, or
where we are now, or where we are
going to after whatever
this…um…whatever we seem to be
going through takes us.
In
the middle of such a “fix,” we
opt for the demonstration of signs
– any kind of signals or
indications will do – that there
is a Loving God “out” there,
somewhere, and in some form who
cares for us, and who is personally
vested in the mortal “plight” of
ours.
More often than not – far,
far more often, in fact – we do
not get our sign.
We
are looking for something out of the
ordinary that will shake us to our
core, and confirm for us what we
wish to know beyond any possible
doubt. We simply must have a sense
that our lives are connected to
something “beyond this mere
place.”
Thus, and in so many ways, we
remain as so many frightened
children.
Maybe it’s our elemental
orientation at work. Perhaps it’s
the way the human mind unfolds and
evolves. Regardless of what it is,
we seem to need proof that we are
befriended by a kind and loving
universe.
Even
the noble scientific materialist
wonders, and ponders, hardly immune
to loneliness and suffering. This is
partially why he keeps reiterating
how there is absolutely nothing but
the physical world; he has his
personal need to try and get used to
being alone.
The
world can seem so cold, so
unfriendly, at times. Our doubts
rise. We just don’t know. Our
“fleeces” have been carefully
arranged.
It
could be literally anything; we just
want God to descend in some way, in any
way. We hold our breath and wait for
the reassuring Voice to silently
whisper something in our ear.
And then we wait some more.
After what seems like “long
enough,” we begin to slowly draw
the conclusion that life must not be
the sort of experience where God
actually attends to our
needs. An “absentee parent” has
obviously fathered us, and this
“Man” seems busy taking care of
other things, in other parts of the
vastness of all that is.
What
a shame. We really are alone.
Our
benedictions have gone unheeded. Our
pleas unheralded. Our hopes
unappeased.
An
empty feeling of abandonment is
harbored within, not only by a few
of us, but in one manner of
speaking, or another, by literally
billions of alienated souls all over
the earth.
…Of course we have it all
wrong. We’re thinking
inappropriately about all of this.
It’s not anything like we have
imagined. Our spiritual perceptions,
as is so often the case, are off.
Way
off.
All we need to do is change
the perspective on our way of
seeing the world. It’s really so
simple that we will wonder, once we do
finally have it, how we had managed
to not do it before.
Perception
and interpretation are the keys.
We are shown all we will ever
need to see – already! We have
our miracles already, and they are
so common, that it’s a wonder we
have failed thoroughly to see this
reality.
Perhaps
it would help to first go back and
consider a few things about
miracles: what really is a
miracle to begin with? Is that which
we seek a “freak” of nature,
like walking on water or observing
the sun standing still?
Does
a miracle have to take the form of a
cripple walking again, or a blind
man seeing again?
Is
a miracle seeing ten percent of a
meager paycheck turned into
millions?
Is
a miracle having a personal,
up-close visit from one of God’s
army of angels?
I guess these things, and
more, might readily qualify as
miracles all right. But because we
seem to be expecting things to
happen like these, when they
often don’t, we start assuming
that we are not being heard from.
We’re
advised, then, to merely shift the
emphasis onto a different, more expanded
way of seeing miracles.
How about using a working
definition of a miracle as being
“something that helps us to become
more awake to the fact that all that
is in this life is manifesting from
a God who is anything, everything,
anywhere and everywhere?”
How
about seeing miracles as everyday
encounters? What does that do to our
definition?
In this
“scenario,” a rippling stream is
easily a miracle. A rising sun (or a
setting one) is a miracle.
Getting
out of bed in the morning to face
another day is a miracle.
Opening
our eyes to see something beautiful,
or to read a book, is a miracle.
Witnessing
the positive flow of money, both
into, and out of, our lives, is a
miracle.
Seeing
the angelic flight of a hummingbird,
up close, and personal, is a
miracle.
I
love to say that if you’ve ever
seen a hummingbird (in Spanish, they
say picaflor, or, pick a
flower), then you don’t really
need to see an angel, for you’ve
already seen your miracle.
If,
in fact, a hummingbird and an angel
should fly by your window just now,
which of them is not the
miracle?
How about the very fact of
birth? Is that a miracle? I am not
sure how much more miraculous it can
all get than to observe reproduction
in progress.
When
we in fact give birth to any idea,
and it comes into our being, it’s
some kind of a metaphysical miracle.
We
merely need to expand on our
definitions.
In
suspending our old disbeliefs, we
are giving up all those encounters
where God was merely being placed on
trial. They make way for the very
open practice of identifying the daily
miracles we are simply bound to
encounter as we traverse through
each of our days.
If
something really
“far-out” happens to you – say
for instance that you’re at a
party and you get a bit tipsy and
you are running out of things to
drink and you decide to wave a wand
over a large water jug, and after
you do it, the water in it turns
into wine…then feel totally
free to safely conclude that you
were witness to a particularly
interesting miracle!
But
you can’t really say it was the only
one of the day, unless you have not
been observing the day very
carefully.
Are
you kidding? My friend,
miracles are all around us!
They were always everywhere,
and the Universe was putting them on
display in your reality the whole time!
Enjoy
this day, and see it for what it is:
a miracle from the vast
Universe. |
