I suppose that the word gets thrown around much, and sometimes quite casually, but there are some.  I decided yesterday when I was riding my bike to an appointment–I had a day off–that I would be on the prowl for miracles.  I gave myself an arbitrary number to find over the next year.  I figured that maybe I’d see 1 of 50 on my bike ride.  Prior to that ride I’d heard an interesting story on NPR regarding medical miracles, and I had remembered seeing the compilation of stories when I ordered a book earlier in the month.  It was an interesting and also moving story.  The doctor interviewed said that his mentor had explained to him that they were “guests in [their] patient’s lives.”

I had posted a couple of weeks ago our terrier running around the basement with the kitten that we adopted and called them both miracles.  It’s funny that we got her for our cat, but she’s our terrier’s playmate when Storm is outside.  The reason I called them that is because they both should be dead.  The kitten came from a parking lot in Canyon City which only boasts one of the largest flat bridges in the world and also a state penitentiary, and the terrier comes from a 24-hr-kill shelter via a puppy mill somewhere in Texas.  Her face didn’t come out right according to the mill.  How did they survive?

I guess sometimes it’s kindness that is a miracle.  Other times a sense of duty calls us to something higher.  So, I’ve resigned myself to look for them around me.  Maybe with the appropriate focus there are more than 50 to witness within a year.  Regardless, I’m grateful to be alive and have so much connection to others and live somewhere safe and secure.  I’m seeking out the nature of miracles because I want to understand them.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and let’s hope that you witness a miracle today.