Opening to Miracles
How do we open ourselves to Miracles?
More to the point: How do we open ourselves to life?
After all, life is a miracle ! Let me briefly offer five ideas.
They are actually life-changing if you choose to take them seriously.
1) Wake up !
Think of this as your wake-up call.
How present are you right now ? Yes, I know that you're here reading this, but how present are you ? Think back to the various interactions you've had today. How present were you in each of those situations ? ... 40% ? ... 60% ? ... maybe 85% if you were lucky ? It may have felt to you like a 100%, but think again. Were you truly present or truthfully pre-occupied ?
We all multi-task to the point of forgetting our primary task: BEING. We are human beings, but behave like human "doings." Slow down. Be still for a moment. In fact: Just be. It may feel at strange at first, but keep at it.
Next time you're outside, stop and feel the warmth of the sun on your face. Notice the way that the sunlight slowly filters through the leaves. Develop the practice of paying attention to everything around you. It's no wonder that the cultivation of awareness is at the core of our world's meditation traditions.
Awareness opens us to the miracle in each moment.
2) Listen ...
The quality of real listening can't be measured by any hearing test.
In a world of Muzak and MTV, learning to listen is a challenge.
The greatest challenge, however, is not the external noise but the mental noise. Are you ever aware of the "voice-over" in your head ? (If you're unclear about what I mean, your voice-over is the part of you that's asking,"What's she talking about anyway ?") The voice-over offers a steady stream of commentary and criticism 24/7. Some of it is useful; most of it is not. You may never be able to silence your voice-over completely. However, you can learn to control the volume.
How can you ever hope to hear the "still, small voice" if all the other noise is drowning it out?
Like a radio, you need to by-pass the static so that you can tune into the actual channel.
Stretching the analogy a bit, it's also important to "listen" to what your body tells you. Your sub-conscious and super-conscious use your body to communicate with you. Since your body can't speak English, the only way it can get the message across is through sensations, feelings, hunches, intuitions ... even illness. Ever get a tingling down your back when you heard something ... a sudden feeling in the pit of your stomach ... a tightening in your throat ? That means your sub-conscious and super-conscious are trying to tell you something.
God is constantly communicating with you ... Are you listening?
3) Be Open...
In Spiritual Literacy, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat wrote, "Hold an open house in your heart for all people and all things." That certainly describes openness. Of course, why bother if the upstairs is sealed off, the downstairs is off-limits and plastic sheets are draped over all the furniture ?
In the same book, the Brussats quote Catholic nun, Joan Puls, as referring to openness as "the attitude and condition at the heart of all spirituality." Don't let yourself miss one moment of the adventure ! Imagine the sunflower: Stretch yourself open to the light.
Not surprisingly, East and West often have very different perspectives of the same topic. A famous Zen saying offers an interesting perspective on openness. "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." We call it "beginner's luck" when a novice succeeds, but it has nothing to do with luck. It has to do with an openness to possibility.
Don't wait any longer...Open the door!
You never know when there might be a miracle on the other side.
Having pictures or expectations of how life should be is fine. The only problem is when you're wedded to those pictures. In that case, file for a no-fault divorce.
Don't ever make the mistake of confusing pictures with reality. It's sad when someone misses out on happiness because it didn't come in the exact packaging they expected. The same thing holds true for miracles.
How many miracles have you missed because they didn't fit your pictures?
While this is the last point on the list, it could well be the first. Gratitude is one of the more exquisite forms of awareness. Gratitude enables us to experience everything as a gift. Gratitude is such a simple spiritual exercise that it can be easy to overlook. Yet, the impact -- not only for you, but also, for everyone and everything around you -- is huge.
Go ahead: Make a mental "gratitude" list. (And notice the resistance you have to doing it.) Add to it throughout the day and keep adding. The fact that you can read this at all and that you're reading it on a computer adds two items to your list. Then, think about all the things you take for granted ... all the things you somehow feel entitled to ... all the things you've assumed come with a guarantee. Sobering, isn't it ?
Remember to express gratitude for the thousands of "everyday" miracles in your life.
God shouldn't have to supercize one to get you to finally mumble "thanks."
Each of the five ideas outlined here provides an access point ... an opening to miracles. As you start to master all five, you realize you don't really need a miracle to happen. The experience of life is miraculous enough !
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MIRACLES ... PASS 'EM ON!
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