Daily Miracles

The end of the calendar year brings some things we annually overlook. Every year we discover ourselves feeling overwhelmed by the year that has just passed. Think back to how many times over the last ten or twenty years you’ve heard someone say they can hardly wait until the new year. Why? Because the year that is ending was the worst year ever.

While that seems to be an almost universal theme in 2020, it’s far from reality.

We are celebrating Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas and New Year’s, however differently than in recent years. Most of us either have enough food on the table or know where to find it. Most people have clothing and shelter.

All of that is a miracle.

Anything more than that is above and beyond reasonable expectation.

For anyone who has not had the experience of being homeless or wondering where you’ll find your next meal, let me clue you in. You have it good. You only have reason to be grateful.

Every day you woke up in 2020 is a miracle. Every day you have been healthy is even more of a miracle. I have seen friends survive Covid-19 this year. Then they have gone on to deal with even worse.

This is the time of the year when you get to sit back, pull out the eggnog and give a big sigh of relief. For those of you who don’t like eggnog, just send it to me. I have long looked on it as one of life’s tastier miracles.

What are the little things you have in your life?

Do you have socks and shoes? A cup of hot coffee? People who are happy and smile when they see you coming?

Miracles. All of them.

Have you done something for someone this year and not been discovered? Have you walked in the sun and run between rain drops? Did you take the time to read an article or book where you learned something new that had absolutely nothing to do with politics or medicine this year?

Miracles.

If you sat in silence for just a few minutes this year — no television or radio or any kind of outside distraction — you took part in a miracle. When someone did something for you, whether an unexpected kindness or something quite routine, and you thanked them, that was a miracle.

The times you opened your eyes, when you paid attention to the goodness in your life, you saw miracles all around you.

We don’t always get the miracles we want in life. We get what we need. Too often we are terribly silly. We complain and are foolishly ungrateful. To our own peril we forget the lesson of the mystic and ascetic Rose of Lima, Peru. She asked and asked for a miracle. The heavens were silent. There was no answer. She kept asking. Finally, she heard the answer.

Sometimes No is an answer.

Not getting what we want can be a miracle, too.

You don’t necessarily need what you want. None of us do.

America is a wealthy country. The American people are accustomed to getting what they want. Whatever toys and other things Americans want are supposed to appear at whim. Others are supposed to accommodate themselves to what we want.

There are not supposed to be devastating disasters. Only minor inconveniences which can be quickly and easily overcome.

Yet, life changes. Not necessarily in the ways we tell our Creator it is supposed to change. Not getting the answers we want — not getting the things we want — those are miracles, too.

There are things which occurred in my life in 2020 which I don’t recall putting on my annual order list to the Creator. Interestingly enough, that has been the case for every year of my life. We don’t always get what we want.

Many persons have told me that because I speak with angels they are supposed to tell God what I want. Then I am to receive it. That is anything but true. Angels tell us what our Creator wants from us. That is what makes possible the good in our lives.

This year I have received miracles on a daily basis.

Slow down. Look around.

You have received daily miracles, too.