Written by Neale Donald Walsch,
Original at Innerself.com.
Nancy had anticipated this moment — her final child trundling off to conquer the world. What she hadn’t anticipated was the cacophony of emotions sweeping over her, and the many questions swarming around in her thoughts. Is Joanie ready to be on her own?
Perhaps more poignantly, Am I ready to be on my own?
Nancy replayed every happy and not-so-happy memory from Joanie’s growing up. Well, she sighed, it’s too late for recriminations now. What’s done is done. Still, she felt herself filling with regret. She took a deep breath.
The Miracles Around Us: As Within, So Without
Turning off the highway onto the quiet, woodsy drive that led to the school, she should have been feeling peacefully serene, like the countryside itself. But no. Nancy experienced the inner turmoil that, at a moment like this, only a mother could fully understand.As Nancy and Joanie watched transfixed, a tiny fawn ventured tentatively out of the trees and followed her mother. The doe crossed the road first, then paused to let her baby come alongside and catch up with her, protecting her, showing her the way. Then the mother nudged her gently up the slope on the other side.
A Mother’s Message: A Silent Miracle
Before disappearing into the woods, the doe turned and gave Nancy a long look.Nancy looked back.
Something seemed to pass between them.
Something . . . felt.
Something that could only pass between mothers.
Then the doe turned and disappeared into the forest, behind her little one.
Nancy had not realized how close to weeping she had been, but the gaze of the deer opened something inside her that she had been clenching. Pent-up tears streamed down her face as she realized the perfect gift of that moment. The awesome metaphor for her own inner conflict had unfolded as if it were staged just for her.
Being Guided to Safety: Our Future Potential
Of course she had made mistakes. Of course she had been less than she’d wanted to be as a parent. Many times she had made questionable decisions. But, like the doe, she had guided her little one safely this far, she had tried to protect her, she had shown the way, and now she was here to help her set out on her own path.Peace and gratitude instantly replaced the turmoil in Nancy’s heart. As she wiped her tears and put the car in gear, she whispered “thank you” to God for the glorious teaching. And she inwardly blessed the little fawn, and her Joanie, on their way to the future.
We Are All On Our Way to the Future
We are on our way to the future, too. We are as beloved offspring, setting off on a new path as we move into this new millennium, beginning to understand things that we could barely comprehend even existed a few short years ago, preparing to take on the largest questions of life, eager to solve the grandest mysteries of the universe.We have been members of a very young society, you and I. Some might even say, a primitive society. But we are on the verge, at last, of coming to maturation, of growing and discovering and blossoming into our larger selves.
An Extraordinary and Enormous Potential
We carry with us into our future an extraordinary and enormous potential. We have all the equipment that we need to face our breathtaking tomorrows. We have the technology, and the ingenuity to create even greater technology. We have the insight, and the ability to achieve even greater insight. All we need now is a little nudge. A little push in the right direction.The time of our emergence is at hand. It is time to cross the road. Time to start up the hill on the other side.
What Is a Miracle? Our Present Understandings Are Limited
Right
now, society is limited by its present understandings, and those
understandings do not always include clarity about the kinds of things
that happen, the kinds of energies that swirl, the kinds of
relationships with The Divine that are evidenced during Moments of
Grace.Religion tells us on one hand that miracles are possible, and to believe in them. Yet on the other, we are told that miracles are unusual, extraordinary, uncommon. What we have a chance to do is demonstrate that just the opposite is true.
MIRACLES ARE COMMONPLACE
Miracles are commonplace. Now that’s an oxymoron, isn’t it? I mean, how can something be a “miracle” if it’s something that’s happening every day? That’s the beauty of the message. It runs counter to the current culture. It says that what is uncommon is common.That’s a message the world would do well to hear right now. It would be nice to know that the extraordinary spiritual events of the Bible and the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita and the Book of Mormon and all the sacred scriptures of all the sacred traditions are not extraordinary at all, but are happening to all of us, all the time.
Demystifying the Mystical: Sharing Our Moments of Grace
Perhaps it’s time to demystify the mystical. Perhaps it’s time to bring God down to Earth. For that is where God is. On Earth. As It is in Heaven.Once we understand and truly know that God is right here, right now, the space of the Here and Now is wide open to the most extraordinary possibilities.
But history teaches us that the human race will not come to these understandings simply because religion wants it to. These are not truths that will be adopted because they are taught. They are truths that will be adopted only after it is demonstrated that they represent, in fact, the real experience of human beings. That is why sharing our experiences of God and telling people about our Moments of Grace can be — and is — so impactful.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher,
Hampton Roads Publishing. ©2011. www.redwheelweiser.com
Article Source:
When God Steps In, Miracles Happen(re-issue of the 2001 book: Moments of Grace)
by Neale Donald Walsch.