8 Reasons to Celebrate in the Season of Miracles

Last updated on April 2nd, 2012 at 12:23 pm

It´s a Christmas miracle.

This year, I´m celebrating a sunny Christmas in the midst of summertime in Argentina, far away from my home in snowy upstate New York where the current temperature is 30 degrees Fahrenheit. (Brrrrrrrr!)

Here it is 86 degrees and breezy. I am staying at my sister Carrie´s home, which is four blocks from the river in downtown Rosario.

The Miracle of Flight
To me, it still feels like a miracle that I can climb into a large metal tube, strap on a seat belt and fly, traveling 8,000 miles, 30,000 feet up,  to get to Rosario via Mexico City and Buenos Aires.

Two planes,  three trains and a taxi, and I arrived on my sister´s doorstep in South America 30 hours later. Unfortunately, while I arrived intact, my luggage did not.

The airline has since tracked it down and it should be delivered today.

The Miracle of Borrowed Clothing that Fits Perfectly!
Luckily the weather here requires very little in the way of clothing, and my sister and I are about the same size. Even more miraculously, losing my luggage for almost a week has not affected my mood – I credit this to the fact that I meditate regularly, since a few years ago (pre-meditation!) this could have set me in a tail-spin for a week.

Meditation (and the peace it brings into my life) is a daily miracle for me.

Las Tres Hermanas
It feels like a miracle that I am spending Christmas with my two sisters, one of whom just completed a semester studying abroad in Bolivia, and another who married an Argentinian man, as well as with my one-year-old niece, Luna.

Luna is a mini-miracle, all big blue eyes and laughing mouth with four tiny baby teeth, soft blond curls and chubby little legs that hold her up as she walks holding onto us, the furniture or walls, wobbling yet confident. She has grown into a toddler since I last saw her three months ago – she crawls, and plays, and laughs, and is full of personality.

Luna makes me wonder how and when we all forgot that just simply being alive, growing from an infant into an adult, learning, exploring the world, and joyfully living in it – that all of these things are miracles in and of themselves.

Living Our Dreams Is A Miracle…
It feels like a miracle to me that I am finally doing what I´ve wanted to do for so many years, and writing my first book! Amen, Hallelujah for that!

(For those curious to know, I am now at 65 pages – having written 90 and tossed about one-third of those! I wrote another 10 pages on the long airplane ride here)

Also, I have escaped the snow and cold for the holidays. Woohoo!

Un Milagro
I like the definition of miracle as ¨a wonder, marvel.¨ The holiday season in multiple religious traditions is characterized by miracles.

Here are eight more reasons to remember today that life is full of wonders, and to celebrate:

1. If you are reading this, you woke up today (or are still awake!). It’s good sometimes just to remember that simply being alive, and aware, is a miracle. Scientists cannot fully explain consciousness yet.
2. If you can see, hear, touch, smell, taste the world around you, that too is a miracle to celebrate. The world is a beautiful place.
3. If you will be spending the holidays with family or friends, that is cause for celebration.
4. If you have moved any closer to any dreams at all in the past year, celebrate that!
5. If you have clean water, food on the table and a roof over your head, celebrate that. More than 2.5 billion people still live on less than $2 a day and many lack clean water, electricity, basic nutrition. You are one of the lucky ones if you have all of these things.
6. If you have money in the bank to buy gifts, or will be receiving gifts, celebrate that! Those who live on less than $2 a day generally spend between 55% to 80% of their incomes on food.
7. If you have hopes and dreams for 2010, celebrate that! A new year is a wonderful time to set new dreams or in motion, or to revive longtime dreams.
8. If your heart is beating, and you are breathing, and all of this is happening without you having to think about it – celebrate the miracle of the body. “We have 70 trillion cells each containing 10,000 more molecules than the Milky Way has stars … all working in harmony with each other.”

I will end with a thought from one of my personal heroes, a genius and humanitarian with crazy hair and laughing eyes. Albert Einstein once said, ¨There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.¨

Any miracles that you can celebrate today? Wishing everyone a joyful holiday season!

Lisa

(Lisa has launched her dream by signing up for Ellen Sussman’s “Memoir-in-a-Year” class, speaking her story out loud at a Take Back the Night rally, and committing to a regular writing schedule – 50 pages completed by December 5th, when she also turned in her first book chapter! Being invited to join 8womendream.com was a dream come true, and she looks forward to chronicling her writing process. Lisa is currently bi-coastal with her home in historic Troy, New York and her heart in San Francisco.  Lisa’s post day is Tuesday).

DREAM GOAL:  NOVEMBER 01, 2010 COMPLETED MEMOIR