I have experienced miracles all my life.  There are times in my life I didn’t see them even though they are in front of me every day.  I simply needed to look with an open heart. 

The other morning I was absolutely devastated about a friendship I was leaving.  I desperately wanted this friend in my life, but I was too focused on what could go wrong instead of what was going right.  
There I was, driving to work with uncontrollable tears in my eyes and paralyzing pain in my heart.  I turned on the highway and there in front of me, was the most beautiful sunrise I have seen in years.  Two things that can lift my soul are sunrises and sunsets.  It was no coincidence that I saw that sunrise. It was put there glowing and beautiful for my eyes to see and my heart to feel.  A miracle of nature.  I thought of my friend immediately; a sunrise in my life that always lifts my spirit.  I stopped and took a picture of it and continued on with the sunrise in my eyes, lighting up the car, and suddenly my heart had new hope.   I want to share a few miracles that I have shared and that have been shared with me.

The Concert 
A friend of mine in my self-help group asked me how I hear God and see miracles.  I told him that when he talks he should remember that everything he says is a prayer to his higher power/God, and with faith, all of his words are heard.  I added that when he listens and is at peace, whether it is meditation or the calm of simply being alone with your thoughts; that in those quiet times, our higher power/God answers us and helps us open our hearts.  That is when we understand our words are heard, and with our open heart, we see and feel miracles.
About three months later we were at a meeting and he was sharing experiences and stated what I had told him above.  He said he went home and prayed because he was caring for his ailing mom and asked for a little relief.  He said he wanted to take care of her but every once in a while he would like a night off.  He thought his prayers were selfish and that is why they were not being answered. He said he prayed and prayed for a few days and he listened, and heard nothing.  Then a couple days later his cousin sent him a text that she had two concert tickets and she had arranged for his brother to care for his mom while they were out.  He almost had tears in his eyes when he said he realized that was the answer and the miracle he was waiting for. He added that now he looks for and sees miracles every day.

The Gas Can
I was spending the night at a friends about 18 months ago.  He and I both left early in the morning from his place as we both had to work that day. It wasn’t yet full light and it was a cold morning.  A few miles down the road I saw a car with the hazard lights on off on the shoulder.  I noticed an elderly man by the car.  I pulled up behind him on the shoulder and got out and asked if I could help.  He said he thought he ran out of gas and he had to be at the hospital early because his wife was having a procedure.  I asked him if he had a gas can and he said he did not.  I offered to drive him to the gas station and help him get gas.  We got to the station and I got a gas can and a couple gallons of gas.  We put the gas in his car and there was a little left in the can and I asked him if he wanted to keep the gas can and he said no and thanked me.  I told him to meet me at the same gas station and we would get him more gas so he could go back and forth to the hospital.  When he left the gas station he hugged me and told me I looked like an angel.  It was a wonderful moment but not the end of the story.  
A couple days later I was out of town working and as I was leaving to drive 200 miles home, I got on a conference call with my boss and an attorney.  I plugged my phone into the Bluetooth  and proceeded home while on the call. We were discussing a very important legal issue that was coming up.  I was on the conference call for about an hour and a half and a few minutes after I hung up the call, my car sputtered and ran out of gas.  Because I got on the call, I totally forgot about filling up before I left. I couldn’t believe it, I had not run out of gas since I was a teenager.  I looked up the nearest gas station on my phone and it was about 4 miles.  I thought about calling Uber for gas or a taxi and decided that it would take longer than if I just walked to the gas station.    I went to the back of my car to get my tennis shoes out to walk and as soon as I opened the hatch I saw the gas can.  I didn’t remember the gas being there, but when I saw it I remembered the morning two days earlier and the old man I helped.  I realized that I was the miracle put there to help him but in turn, he was the miracle put there for me to have what I needed.  There was about a half-gallon of gas left and I was able to put it in my car and get to the gas station. Truly a miracle. An experience that still amazes me when I think about it.

The Envelope
I was going to the bank for work.  I decided to park in the back of the bank.  I never parked in the back and I didn’t know why there was a strong feeling that I needed to park in the back.  As I walked up to the bank, I noticed a bank envelope on the grass a few inches off the sidewalk. I reached down and picked it up and it was full of $100 bills.  A lot of them.  At least a few thousand dollars.  There was nothing in or on the envelope except the return address which was the address of the bank.  I knew whoever was missing this money would be looking for it. I wondered what to do, who to give it to.  I didn’t want to hand it to someone who would not give it to the person who lost it.  I went into the bank and talked to the manager.  They knew me and he said he thought he knew who lost it because he had to authorize the withdrawal because it was over $5,000. 
At that moment a very tall African American man walked in, about 6’4”, in his late thirties or early forties and he looked like he could be a football player. The manager said I think this is him.  He walked out and spoke with the man and the manager turned and pointed to me.  The man came over quickly and gave me the biggest bear hug I have ever received.  When he did I felt what seemed like a current of electricity pass between us.  He stopped and said, wow, you are powerful.  I looked at him and said, yeah we just had that electricity thing happen between us.  He told me he could not believe that someone would turn in the envelope and he said God had sent me to help him that day.  I believe I was the miracle sent for him that day.

The Grocery Store
I was having a rough day a couple years ago.  I was 2 years post-divorce from a 29 year marriage.  My ex was an emotionally unavailable and rigid person who did not share feelings easily.  There were good years but I don’t think either of us were very happy throughout.  Post-divorce he was cruel and intrusive and difficult when it came to our son and grandchildren.  He was never good at boundaries anyway, was a classic gas-lighter, but now he was intruding on my space and blaming me for his situation.  I was not an easy person to live with either, we all have our own baggage we carry, but I always had a generous heart so I had resolved in my heart to forgive everything between us to let things go and not to let it bother me.  On this particular day he was out of control and I just wanted to be left alone and have some peace.
I was in the grocery store.  It was a small, neighborhood grocery that had large front windows.  I was still upset from my ex’s emails; I was at the self-checkout and I looked up and thought in my head, God, I am doing my best, so please give me a sign and a path to follow that is going to be happier.  As I looked back down I noticed a semi-truck in the window out in front of the store.  It had a logo on the side of it.  I think it said “Sundance Food”.  When I looked at it, all I really saw was the word Sundance, and it was glowing. Gold and bright.  Glowing.  I said out loud with a question – “Sundance?”
I paid for my groceries and left the store, but the strange glowing word “Sundance” stuck in my head.  It was so odd.  About two weeks later I met a new friend.  We introduced ourselves and my knees literally buckled when he said my friends call me Sundance.   He said he lived in Texas but was working in Michigan on a contract for 6 months and I instantly remembered the glowing word in the store.  A sign and an answer to a prayer.  
I often think about the odds of us ever meeting and the connection we now have.  He is an amazing person and an amazing friend on many levels. He was the miracle that was put in my life that opened a new path for me.  I am graced to be able to call him my friend.  

The Miracles We See Every Day
I have more stories, dozens of them. Miracles around me every day.  Everything in my life is a miracle.  From a sunrise that I see, to the love of my family; even a smile from a stranger and a hug from a friend, the lessons they teach me are priceless.  I learn that by keeping my heart open I see the miracle of the universe every day. I understand now that we share space and time with amazing people on this planet and even with our differences our spirits connect.  We may have different backgrounds, or interests, or differing political or spiritual views, but what the universe shows us through love and kindness, is that we are all the same in our hearts.  The kindness we extend to one another and the love we give those around us are choices we make every day to be living miracles in the world.
Albert Einstein said it best.  “There are only two ways of living your life.  One as though nothing is a miracle.  The other as though everything is a miracle”.

 

- Butch