Mini-Miracles

I had not been a firm believer in miracles, until recently! Perhaps the last two words might have made you think what could have changed my mind! Of late, I had been encountering small miracles, for which I have no explanation. I cannot claim that these miracles had a spectacular effect on me, or the people around me, but they have in one sense changed the way I look at myself, the reality around me, the human society with whom I constantly rub shoulders, and the power beyond me! What happens quite frequently these days may be termed by a skeptic as ‘pleasant surprises’, but for me they are mini-miracles, which point me to a power beyond human reach, and yet so close to us!

Maybe it would be clearer if I narrate what happened this evening. I had a wrist watch (a Japan made, Casio brand), which is available on the footpaths of the city for rupees 60. But the one I have, has a story: When I was asked to carry a camera bag to India from Rome in Italy, as I checked the contents in the bag, I found the watch sans strap. It looked good to me, and so after reaching home, I got it repaired, got a strap, paying the amount for which I could have bought a new one; but I knew it was used by one of the Jesuit companions many years ago, and I was privileged to wear it now.

Coming back to the original story, the connecting pin of the watch had fallen, and I had to get a new hook. Some days ago, the hook had fallen in the house, and so I could not use it for about two weeks. I had taken the watch to get a hook fixed on it to one of the shops. The shop keeper, after fixing a hook, asked me where the supporting ring was, and I told him that might have fallen. He looked for a similar black color ring, but he could not find one. After about ten minutes of searching for it, he gave up hope and told me to look for it somewhere else. As I left the shop towards home, something in me said that probably that supportive ring should be in the house, maybe in my room. This was not a fleeting feeling, but it was almost a surety. I was almost sure that it was there at home, maybe in my bag!

After reaching home, I went to my room, poured out the contents of my ‘reporting bag’ (as one of my friends had named it), and initially I could not find what I was looking for. When there were only the coins left, I found in their midst the black supportive ring, and what a surprise it was for me to find it back! I had not placed it in the bag, and it is possible that when the connective hook of the strap was lost, the ring might have come out of the strap and remained there. But to get it back after about a month, was not a simple thing. It was a miracle to find such a tiny thing, in the midst of so many big things.

Today one thing became clear for me: there are so many miracles taking place in and around me all the time, but most of the time I am not aware of them, and am not conscious of them. If only I take note of them, then they are sure to affect me, and even change me. Caught between worldly worries and preoccupations, I have failed look around me with eyes wide open; I hear the innumerable noises around me, but fail to listen to the song of the birds, the rumbling of trees, the whistling of the wind… What better grace can I ask of the Almighty today than asking him to open my eyes and ears wide open to take note of the miracles happening each moment of my life, and that they may draw me closer to the Supreme power beyond.