What is a Miracle?

Entering into September, things slowed down considerably for me here in Vietnam. I traded in motorbike adventures for a week of detox and moving slow. And in these slow movements, I can focus on those new routines that I'm cultivating in my writing life and yoga life.

But amidst my attempts to focus, I can't stop thinking about the story my amazing soul-sister Sadie told me recently. After sitting in meditation with her dad, she asked him if he'd had any insights. What's a miracle? he asked her. And she told him about me.

What is a miracle?

According to dictionary Google, it is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws, in other words, a divine event. It's something external that we can witness. Whereas this can be true, I believe most miracles are far more subtle and work deep in the folds where we typically aren't looking.

When my entire life as I knew it in California crumbled around me into something I couldn't make sense of, miracles were at work. They were helping to restructure my world so I could realign with my soul's path--though at the time, it seemed like the opposite was happening in every direction I looked. Only now can I see how obvious they all were.

According to A Course of Miracles, a miracle is a shift in perspective from fear to love, when that "tiny, mad idea" that we are separate from each other and God dissolves. This perspective shift is not one that you simply think in your mind because it does not come from the mind--it comes from the heart, and it must be felt. This can only happen through complete forgiveness, compassion, and gratitude. It happens through surrendering and letting go--sometimes leading us to places where we are forced to face our deepest fears and buried emotions.

I have learned that miracles are those things that move us closer to our core values and soul alignment--even if it means ripping us from the foundation we've spent our life building. Because the more aligned we are, the more at peace we are, and the more at peace we are the better we are able to process emotions and the world around us. And the better we are able to process, the more fine tuned our intuition becomes and the clearer we can see everyone and everything around us.

The miracle is being able to stay fully present with a profound understanding and knowing that we are sovereign souls meant to live in alignment with why came here--and those reasons will be different for everyone as we are unique, energetic expressions of source.

A miracle is coming into the awareness that the past and the future do not exist and that only our minds give them life. It is the ability to re-frame our past and the stories we tell ourselves. It is the ability create our future with the present. And that, my friends, is a powerful miracle!

What do miracles mean to you? Have you experienced any in your life? Tell me your stories!

The Great Unlocking (or Lessons from the Hanged Man)

Each night long after dark I walk down the wide, expansive beach until the city noise and light pollution fade into the distance and all I can hear is the ocean roar. I need a sign. I need this energy to move. I needed a sign on what to do about my dilemma. I had planned to be in Da Nang until the end of August, but within the first week, my nervous system was already shot.

There is a sense of urgency and unrest that permeates every facet of Da Nang, and it unnerved me to the core. Each passing day became a test of patience and tolerance from the non-stop jackhammer outside my apartment window to the blasting music around every corner and relentless horn honking down every road. I expected this in the big cities and even in the city center of Da Nang, but here on the beach?

My life in this coastal city was not unfolding as I had planned. I had envisioned digging deep into my novel revision and the new practices I wanted to cultivate. But like the saying goes, make plans then allow something better to happen. Maybe that's not a saying, but it should be.

On my walk back to my apartment one night, I got my sign--literally. It was the sign outside of a bar on the street where I live. Lit up and glaring--the Hanged Man.

If you practice Tarot, you already know where this is going. The hanged man represents a clear sign to stop trying to control situations and to slow down and listen and let go and allow natural shifts in perspective--allow the universe to keep you suspended in mid-air, upside down. And from this perspective, where parts of the mind unlock that would have otherwise not, is where light can shine in the dark and the unknown can be discovered.

There was nothing I could do about my environment, not right away anyway so I allowed something better to happen. I got out of the city and discovered Vietnam in a way I might not have had things unfolded as I planned.

Driving around the Son Tra Peninsula for hours, taking long coastal routes all the way to Hue, hiking into untouched, magic jungles--this is where time stops and the infinite power of the present lingers, this is where egos diminish and all that's left standing is the soul in awe of its sovereign existence.

From the road, taking in the landscape--the inescapable beauty of deserted jungle roads, breathtaking coastline views from mountain passes, quiet, surreal villages--this is where clarity resurfaces, visions crystallize, and my soul remembers why I was brought here.

There is something about the expansiveness of the ocean and open road that bursts me open to receiving messages and gifts and energy. It puts me at ease and fills me up so I can go back into the world and live and write and simply be.

When we stop trying to force things to happen in our lives or even wish for things to be different is when the better path, the better plan presents itself. It is an alchemical process of co-creation with the infinite that can't so much be explained but only experienced. I know this lesson all too well--it's what got me here, on the other side of the world, following my curiosity. It's what keeps me moving forward in a perpetual state of awe and gratitude.

Have you had experiences where instead of forcing your life to work as you planned you simply surrendered to a new perspective and allowed magic to unfold? Tell me your stories!