Becoming the Miracle

Becoming the Miracle

Becoming the miracle sounds pretentious, perhaps too spiritual, and even impossible. And yet we all would like to believe in miracles; in something that happens in unexpected ways – but in which we have sometimes played a part. The words that are famously attributed to Gandhi: be the change you wish to see in the world, have inspired this article.

What exactly would be a miracle?

Can you imagine a world with no anger? No impatience? No greed? No self-aggrandizement? No posturing? No jealousy? No envy? No self-pity? No lies? No stealing? No violence? No hatred? No falseness? No avarice? No one-up-man-ship? No vanity? No false pride? No idolatry (of whatever or whomever)? No addictions? No suicidal ideation? No criticism? No judgment? No racism? No stereo-typing? No fear? No desire for revenge? No blaming? No need?

Or how about no slavery? No abuse? No hunger? No lack of clean water? No lack of education for all? No exploitation of anyone for anything?

Further, how about no lack of self-esteem? No poor boundaries? No lack of self-love? No need for approval? No carrying around – for days or decades – of old wounds? No inability to forgive? No fear of solitude? No fear of digging deeply into the self to discover all that is there? And how about no falling back into blindness; no lack of being conscious and aware?

No duality?

I imagine you would agree with me that a world populated with people and conditions like that would indeed constitute a miracle; one worth fighting for. Or, said in other words: one worth striving for.

Think of it like this: imagine living in a small town back in 1920. You live in a small house and your neighbours live in similar small-ish houses. You take care of your own front steps and adjacent area by sweeping it all on a daily basis and perhaps washing it down every several days. Your neighbours do the same. So your town remains dust and trash-free and clean. The German poet Goethe put it this way: if everyone will sweep in front of their own house, soon the whole village will be clean. Simple, right? This is exactly what you can do to become the miracle. Sweep in front of your own house, in other words, take care of your own issues. If you do that, and I do that, and all of us do that, soon the whole world will be clean.

That would be a miracle, wouldn’t it? Is it so very hard to imagine? It is, because it’s not happening.

And so – precisely because it is so hard to imagine, and also because you obviously can’t do anything about the rest of the world, and only about yourself – what you can do, is to become the miracle – or in Gandhi’s word’s: the change, yourself. You can take on the task of changing yourself in all the ways described above in order to eradicate any of the negatives I listed beginning with the third paragraph.

When I give talks about this subject, people often roll their eyes because they are aware – we are all aware – of what a daunting task this is. Just as it would be a daunting task for any one of us to clean the entire village. But cleaning up your own act, so to speak, daunting as though it may seem at first glance is hardly the same.

Think of it like this: imagine you want to lose some weight and become more fit, and tone your body. You want to start eating better food, and perhaps even start learning yoga in order to combat your stress. All of this may also include drinking less alcohol, perhaps having coffee or tea with no sugar, and omitting soft drinks from your daily intake. Evidently if you were to attempt all of that at the very beginning, you would soon fail. It’s far too much to take on at one go. So perhaps you start by cutting down on the alcohol and doing daily stretching and going a short runs. Perhaps after a month or two of that, you incorporate one or two more of the above-mentioned activities into your daily regimen. Doing it this way means it is less difficult, in fact, relatively easy. And what’s more, you begin noticing results in relatively short order. You build on small changes, eventually creating a great change.

Consider that it’s exactly the same when you want to change your inner self. Choose one item to focus on. Perhaps you want to work on being less impatient. Or on being kinder, more loving. Or on being less judgmental. On having healthier boundaries. On being less needy. On loving yourself more. And so on. (If you need ideas about how to begin to do this, please have a look at my blogs or website – links can be found below this article). We all know, that if we look carefully at ourselves, there are many things that could be improved, or eradicated, or changed. So pick one that doesn’t seem too hard, and start there. After perhaps a month, when you feel more comfortable with the way you deal with this aspect, choose another to focus on, and then another, and another, and so on. Before you know it, a large portion of your street will be clean. And remember: whichever characteristic or habit you begin to work on, by improving it, you begin to notice the effect of that improvement in other areas of your life. It has a cumulative effect. Furthermore, your energetic frequency changes as you change. It all adds up to make a very different individual of you.

OK, you say. So I did it. But the others have not done anything. So how is this a miracle? Simply because you did your part. You became the miracle by creating those changes in yourself. Now the possibility that others will feel encouraged by your forward movement to change their own lives. A domino effect may begin. More and more people may start cleaning in front of their own door. Your small and personal miracle has grown and expanded. And that is all you can do. Take care of your own inner world and shine like a beacon.

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