Okay, I’m a few days from mid-week, but I thought of what to write and jumped right in!
With my Milagro Box craft coming up, I’ve been thinking about the word “miracle” and all the ways we use it in our culture and what it really means in a more sacred way. A Milagro, as an object, is from the cultures of Mexico and in Spanish “milagro” means “miracle” or “surprise”. No pun intended but I was surprised to read that. But when you think about it, a lot of things we call miracles ARE pretty surprising. The physical “milagros” from Mexican culture, are small charms of many different objects. We will be using the charms to create boxes for purposes sacred, magical, or simply decorative. The ways the Milagro charms are used in Mexico, that I have read about, are varied and seem pretty magical in my mind. Placing some kind of intention in the charm and carrying it for healing or protection or offering it to a saint in the hopes of answered prayers reminds me of my magical practices. After all, a spell does seem pretty miraculous when it works, and a lot like prayer when I am crafting it.
Miracle is a word that might seem to be only religious. We hear it a lot from folks from certain religions who tell us that something they prayed for and then happened was a miracle of God. I can’t disagree. I think that the folks of these faiths are probably thinking that miracles can only come from God and perhaps that they are mostly spectacular events that seemed unlikely. (surprise!) I think we limit ourselves and our own power when we give all the miracles to the supernatural.
With Imbolg right around the corner, I am of a mind that miracles are about to begin in earnest as the Universe’s powers of growth return or perhaps I might say, when the Goddess begins to awaken. It’s not spring but neither is it full winter. Thankfully, we are past midwinter and if you go outside on Imbolg and look closely, you will see small bits of green beginning to return and maybe even crocus awakening. Whether it is the grass you take for granted or the lovely bulbs who are here for such a short time, life is coming back to the earth. This can be nothing short of a miracle. These things have looked “dead” for months.
If you don’t know me, I put my heart and soul into a pretty big garden every summer. I feel like Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s apprentice waving my trowel like a magic wand, conducting the magic to grow the plants that make the neighbors say “how do you get it to do that?” “Miracle Grow?” haha! Well, I can’t say “magic” unless it sounds joking, but “it seems like a miracle, right?” is sometimes a good answer. And it’s true. Every flower is a miracle. I don’t cure cancer but I do make lots of flowers, small and fleeting miracles. Miracles, big or small, from a big G god, a goddess, the Fae folk, the Universe, or just random surprises, are all around us. Put your hand on your chest. You aren’t doing anything to cause it but your heart is beating and keeping you alive. YOU are the best miracle. You can create your own miracles with the miraculous spirit you have. On Beltane my children used to leave May Baskets for the neighbors. Surprise! The neighbors got a happy miracle and so did we when we hid and watched their reaction.
Magic, prayer, and focused thought are tools which can help us to intentionally create miracles for ourselves and for others. Miracle Grow is actually well named – the surprising magic of watching plants say “oh my god, thank you for that!” and start to grow. I give them blue stuff, they grow. Magic nitrogen potion.
Go ahead, call a car crash that didn’t kill you a miracle. It was. Recognize the miraculous when your sickness got better when the doctor told you it wouldn’t. Sometimes, with modern health care, we can take babies for granted. But a baby is pretty freaking miraculous. But don’t forget the smiles you create, the plants that return when winter lets them go, every breath you take, and the comfort your breathing gives another person who loves you, when you ponder the meaning of miracle. (Tuesday my youngest kid turns 26! Miracles abound!)
What are miracles? Certainly the surprises we were not expecting when we had given up hope. But it’s not just that, not just the big things and the surprised person screaming “It’s a miracle!!”. I think miracles are simply Life, and all the myriad of surprises we give and find as we walk life’s paths.
Blessings (and miracles!),
Chel
