Deciding on Miracles

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Deciding on Miracles

By Jane Tawel

November 6, 2022

The following are in part, at this time, some of my fledgling reflections on some of the seminal and profound ideas in that great chestnut by M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled.

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I shall decide that today is a miracle,

“Today is a miracle”.

I shall imbibe of the salty and sweet,

and watch the small miracle of my carefully placed feet.

And when I feel faint or uncertain in knowing,

I shall not retreat from the knowledge that’s growing,

that every small moment that I have of living,

is a strange unknown mercy, not earned, simply given.

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And we fear all the things that we don’t understand,

but, in truth, even as rational thought does expand,

we are ever more fearful, and anxious, and fetal.

While religions have certainly quite often been evil,

we might miss the deep truths of our innate and primeval,

amazing, inscrutable sense of the ineffable,

by ignoring the fact that true faith is accessible,

by simply and humbly accepting right now,

that we are still living — and we do not know how.

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Oh, I shall with skeptical prodding, intact,

be carefully aware, we don’t know all the facts.

But how else to explain my survival today,

when all history and science point quite different ways?

One must say, “It’s a mystery.” And then one must face,

that the answer is simple: It’s a matter of grace.

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Today I shall decide that I am a miracle.

This moment — a miracle.

My eyes — a miracle.

My breath — a miracle.

My fingers — a miracle.

My thought — a miracle.

My feeling — a miracle.

My health — a miracle.

My family — a miracle.

That bird — a miracle.

That pond — a miracle.

The sky — a miracle.

A dandelion is a stunning miracle.

You and Them — miracles…….

Oh, there are not enough pages or scientific journals or theological tomes in the whole of the world’s history! — to hold all the miracles of grace, in just this moment!

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Dear Nameless, Unknowable, Miraculous, Gracious Giver of All Life:

Help me to keep this holy but foolish vow:

This day, I will step into the miracle that I am alive.

And no matter what may befall me or my world or the planet today,

may I count not the things that have been lost,

but the pearl of great price I have found.

If I lose my eyes, may I be grateful for my heart still beating.

If my heart stops beating,

may the memories of my heart of love still live in others.

If I lose all that is dearest to me — my loved ones — my ability to think — my shelter — 

may I even in utter despair,

believe that Eternity exists because Love never dies,

and may I trust that when all facts seem to point to hell on earth,

there is a heaven, most real, to be found in the Mystery of Grace.

May I embrace an inexplicable joy in my journey today,

and tonight, lie down in perfect peace, knowing that

fear and even death, have no power

against the Eternal Power of Grace and Love.

Oh, I bless the time in which I was born,

and I stand in wonder that all the factors of my existence,

and that the science and religion and books and other people

have all given me just enough knowledge,

to burn my fingers and my wings,

but not enough fire to blind me, or kill me.

Oh yes, like the primordial, cosmic, foolish, and absolutely brilliant being that I am,

I shall keep rubbing together the two little sticks I have been given.

I shall keep making my small little fire of miraculous light and life.

And I shall keep burning within me,

the friction caused between knowledge and faith.

And with the miracle of the scientific fact that nothing is ever destroyed,

and with the scientific fact that my very existence and life today

is an unexplained miracle of grace,

I will rejoice that in this moment, I miraculously live forever.

Oh, grace has kept me safe thus far, and

Grace will bring me Home.

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© Jane Tawel, 2022