Keeping Track of the Miracles

A certain friend of mine, trying to cheer me up from my Funk of Doom this weekend, brought me a Coffee Bean/Tea Leaf mug emblazoned with the homily:
"Life is a Series of Thousands of Tiny Miracles."*

I was touched by the impromptu gift, but still wondered, "Yeah, yeah, but where am I gonna find the few grand my dentist wants me to pay, to keep my teeth from falling out?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Mine are messed up too, have been for a year, and I can't afford to fix them either. I'm hoping to stem the tide someday."

OK, so neither of us know how we're gonna save our teeth. But she has a habit that is very creative - she writes down every time that something really unexpectedly good happens to her.

Keeping track of miracles in this sort of situation is definitely worth making the time for.

Besides, the mug is right - we are surrounded by incredibly unlikely circumstances, by which we navigate our daily lives: The meeting of sperm and egg. The flight of the bumblebee. Water, for goodness sake. The firing of synapses. The internal combustion engine. Nonverbal communication. Love, sex and romance. Freeway driving. "I'm a fan of electricity," my daughter concurs, looking up from her animated computer game.

Far more proactive than simply counting one's blessings, logging the miracles that happen is a way of celebrating the life-giving power of good will, of bringing in astonishment to bridge the corrosive sameness of daily life.

And, if the "Law of Attraction" people are right, it's a good way to create more of the same.

So I dare you. In a little notebook or your journal, take a moment to consider what happened recently that was incredibly unusual and positive. And if something really superb happened, write in and tell everyone about it.

*(attributed to Mike Greenberg)