It is that time of the year! It’s Christmas time… undoubtedly the month of miracles and magic! So, let’s welcome it, let’s herald it in, let’s just acknowledge it in the spirit it truly deserves. Everywhere around you float bubbles of joy and cheer. The very air around has a cozy embrace. Far off, places in the West have the very earth wearing a romantic coat of white fluff and snow. While warm cozy firesides crackle and burn, glows of lamps with mellow street lights fill you up with their soft presence, making one’s heart soar and steps spring. Here, back home we have warmth and friends, a crisp nip in the air and an invigorating sense of something special coming our way.

Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in things happening for a reason? Are you someone that questions the whys and why-nots? Everywhere, in everything, we see a miracle. All around life happens and bursts with mysteries – a child’s first step, a ray of sunshine, a flower in full bloom. They say, ‘If we live every moment believing, every moment may just become a belief!’

The universe is vast, it’s inexplicable, unfathomable by any standard of our limited human scope. We have but explored a couple of our neighbors – be it Mars, Jupiter or Saturn and already we are consumed with pride and some sort of a false bravado. When will we teleport? When do you think, we may be able to travel to galaxies known or unknown? Something created it all, call it what you may. ‘God’, a natural coincidence, call it simply energy or some life force.  But, deny all you may, we were all born, created, infused with life breath, and still, you question miracles? Tides and forces in nature were a long time ago questioned and consequentially defined as miracles. Today we believe that it’s just the gravitational pull of the earth. But have you asked for how long this natural phenomenon has been happening and will probably continue to happen? Is that not then your big in-your-face miracle standing by itself? And still, you doubt!

We can share ideas and opinions, constantly defy faith and belief. We can certainly verify all things with complex research – scientific, theoretical or philosophical, in our pursuit to try to figure it all out. But it all finally boils down to something or someone being a grand puppeteer, perfecting it all.

Now if you are one who is going to ask the universe for grand signs, like an unexpected horseshoe in the middle of Starbucks while grabbing your coffee, or a four-leaf clover leaf every time you are out walking your dog, it doesn’t work, right? You certainly don’t expect to see an elephant with its trunk up when you go to the mall? But the signs are all there, if you choose to look closely or learn to be mindful.  It’s the small things, it’s the big things. Mother Teresa – the icon of compassion and care – left her home and family to make the back alleys of Kolkata her home, working for the poor and disadvantaged. She sheltered the most deprived, the most unloved with loving tenderness and compassion. A veritable modern-day Saint. And still, you disbelieve?

What about that particular song playing on the radio that exact minute that lifts you up just when your whole world was going to crash around you? Then there is that smile from a complete stranger that makes your day. Or the greeting you get from your pup coming home, that just about completes it. That pat on the back, that hug when needed, the call that came just in time, or the gift you received without any reason at all. The right person walking into your life at the right time or the wrong one leaving just when they did. Miracles are blessings that come in everyday gestures, tiny signs of someone up there saying they’re looking out for you. What about the feet that touch the ground each morning and the sleep you enjoy every night. The way your body ticks, the way your senses are attuned to all life. Where do you think it, all started? Where do you think you come from and where do you think you will go? What was the very beginning and what will be the end?

I believe in miracles and I believe they abound everywhere… in the love you receive, in the support you have, in all the expected places where you find it and in all the unexpected places where you least expect it. Miracles are people who grant you dignity when you’ve lost yours. Miracles are people who’ve lost their way and then help others find theirs. Tiny gestures of love and affection are miracles of the soul. Miracles come in moments when you are ready and willing to seek and ask for them. Open your heart and invite them in. You may see them in extraordinary events like a windfall or a complete cure after a debilitating disease.

You may see miracles flourish in the most ordinary things like hope, desire, love and trust. You may catch glimpses of them in dark places of despair and naught. Miracles are but pathways to faith and so much more!

I believe in miracles. Do you? Miracles abound everywhere and of that, I am sure. And what better time than Christmas to put your faith in miracles! Merry Xmas!!