Consider this: Over the last  six weeks, Joan, Katie and I were down for the count, although there is no comparison between what Joan experienced with her bike accident, Katie's emergency surgery and my walking pneumonia. How quickly life can turn upside down, and how grateful I am that our outcomes were not worse.

          The very act of staying prone in bed during the day forced a certain type of reverie that is uncommon for me. One thing led to another and when I could literally breathe again I also found myself looking at life in a slightly different way. 

          During my "pneumonia pause," it occurred to me that when we take a time out from our busy lives, new ideas and ways of being can germinate. From author Hope Jahren, I learn that most seeds wait for at least a year before starting to grow. Some, like the cherry seed can wait for hundreds of years. What are they waiting for I wonder? Do seeds have a second sense that says "this is the year?" How are we humans the same, or different?

         I think about what is ready to burst forth in me. Do I have latent dreams or wishes in my heart, parts of me I've held back, hoping for just the right conditions to be born into the world? People say that as long as you are alive, there is always potential; now this message has greater meaning. Like that seed that doesn't look alive, its energy contained within an outer shell, I think about what I've hidden, even from myself.

          A couple of years ago I became a Master Gardener, though one would never guess it given the current state of my garden. Strangely, I am in no hurry to remedy the situation. Underneath those leaves and downed limbs from winter storms lies a magical world just waiting for warmer weather to start an explosion of new life. I trust this new life is there; in fact, I count on it. Just below the surface, every seed is waiting for just the right conditions to burst open.
         
          Our world community is being forced to pause. Resilient solutions are clearly beyond what is available in our self-help books, personal growth seminars or any individual packet of "Secret" sauce. We are being asked to acknowledge our interdependence like never before. Like many of you, I am experiencing what it is like to be living in a kind of "underground" state, in unfamiliar terrain.

          I think there is power in this pause.

          Just like what is happening in my garden, there are little bits of green dreams lying under the surface in each of us that can be born into our world, even under these less than optimal conditions. What wishes for beauty have been hidden, like my seeds, just waiting to burst open in the light? What new ways of connecting, collaborating and working with, instead of against, one another are possible? What can this time of hardship, of tragedy, teach us about ourselves, about our communities, about who and what is important?

          There is grace and there are miracles present in the hundreds of selfless every day and heroic acts that put the good of the world above the good of the one. They are beautiful and deserve to be celebrated.

          My garden, the world garden, looks like a mess right now, it's true. But I believe in miracles, and as surely as I know anything, Spring will come. (Meb)

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 They say there are no atheists in foxholes. At the time of great danger, fear, or pain, one hopes there is Something of Someone greater that has your back. It's a comforting  thought when you are at the end of your rope. It is certainly a feeling I've experienced as I've faced some of the medical challenges in my life. But how to stay constant to that feeling has always been my struggle. It is not a question of doubt in a Greater Being, but more a question like the sainted Mother Teresa posed of discerning God's voice in our own life.

          These lofty questions become grounded when life hands us a wake-up call. For me, this month it was a serious bike accident. Emergency back surgery in a new city, uncertainty about the outcome and my motherly  desire to dance at our daughter's wedding this May put me right back in that foxhole.

          I knew what I had to do. In addition to listening to the doctors through my pain and drug-induced fog, signing authorizations and consents, I knew I needed to call on my prayer warriors for assistance. As a mere mortal, even with the best husband in the world by my side, I couldn't get through this with only earthy efforts. I needed help. And hard as it is for me to ask for assistance, once requested, help came in droves.

          I know heaven was barraged with prayers, the surgery went well, I can walk, and the light at the end of this tunnel is not a train! The flowers, cards and letters (and chocolates) I have received have revived my spirit helping me to accept this new reality and make plans for my next steps, literally. The Daily Good email arrived with words of inspiration about acceptance and the fact that it "doesn't inherently imply inaction, stagnation passivity, or cowardice...acceptance can open us up to a sense of possibility..." I experienced this when instead of bemoaning my latest calamity, the occupational therapist shared a remarkable miracle story. Soothing my spirit was more important than learning to put on my socks.

          For some of us, it is important to be reminded of the power of prayer, the knowledge that we are not alone in the foxhole of life. Prayers from my family and friends and their prayer groups keep me from feeling isolated and shower me with their protection and goodwill. Not only is it a way of feeling a closer connection with the Divine, but it is a way of being the miracle for each other by a kind word, a smile, a card, a remembrance, and a prayer.

          Yes, I have had my wake up call. Please don't let it take an accident for you to have yours. It shouldn't take a Super Bowl or a Super Tuesday for us to realize our connection with each other and with the Divine. It happens every day: with the hopes we harbor in our hearts, in the joy we can bring to others, and in our ability to accept our limitations with grace, putting one foot ahead of the other and moving forward, together. 

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          Toddlers have an amazing knack for being exactly who they are. After a recent trip to Denver to visit two of my grandsons, I was reminded of how refreshing it is to see little people with such pureness of being. They love with abandon and live in the moment, unspoiled by what people think and unconcerned about what it means to fit in. On the morning we left, three-year-old Shiloh sang along to True Colors for us, the version from the 2016 movie Trolls, especially belting out "that's why I love you." This did not make leaving any easier, especially after he subsequently decided I needed to stay for twenty years, an eternity to a three-year old.

          2020 seems as good a time as any to bring clarity to our true colors. For me and I guess most of us, it is a life-long challenge to hone in on who we really are, what we really think, and then find the courage to show ourselves in living color. New Year's resolutions tend to pinpoint what we want - to be thinner, healthier, or learn a new skill  - as opposed to sharpening the color on what we already have within us, the God-given gifts we get to share with the world. Maybe that's why, with resolutions, by the end of the first month, our good intentions lag, many times they don't originate from a deep sense of who we are. Fortunately, we cannot escape ourselves, our own true colors, because what we have to offer is unique and important to the whole.

          We each share much in common with that whole, as we all strive to be happy and healthy, engaged and connected, loved and respected. If we are here for a reason, and even if we are not, why not take our uniqueness out for a spin, under the umbrella of our commonality, so that our true colors expand and enhance the canvas of the world to the best of our abilities and gifts? There are always ways to improve how the billions of little pieces fit together and complete the puzzle of humanity. That's where your true colors come in. To recognize from the 10,000,000 discernible colors that exist, which combination has your name of it and place it just so in your teensy corner of the world. No matter who we are, we can choose to be kind and make a difference in our own small corner, and with our own flare. When it meets up with others with like-minded intentions, it's where the energy that powers the good in humanity comes from. And I personally  believe, given half a chance, humanity is more good than not. What we want for ourselves, we also want for our fellow humans. Three-year olds haven't figured that part out yet.

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          In the darkest days of our lives, in the darkest of winter, for as long as humans have registered emotions and named them, we have hoped. While the idea of hope can be used as a platitude, like when we say, "You gotta have hope!" offering an easy consolation to a suffering soul, hope also implies action, as in, "To hope." I think of Hope as a verb. In fact, I think hope is the energizing element that sustains the indomitable human spirit.
 

          At this time of year, stories of human hope abound. One of my favorites is the story of the Maccabees and Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. It is a compelling narrative, complete with a band of rebels who staged guerrilla warfare against Hellenized Jewish leaders, who had allowed the Temple in Jerusalem to be defiled. Judas Maccabeus was a particularly brilliant military leader and through surprise, cunning, and a little luck, he routed the armies that the evil Greek emperor, Antiochus, sent to crush the rebellion. It is at this point the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days took place. According to the Talmud, unadulterated and undefiled pure olive oil with the seal of the high priest was necessary to re-light the Temple Menorah, and the menorah was required to burn throughout the night, every night. The story goes that the heroes could only find one flask of pure oil, which was only enough to burn for one day. To replace it required an extensive process that lasted eight days. The miracle oil lasted just long enough to prepare the new undefiled oil. 
 

          Today, one candle is lit on the  menorah for each night of Hanukkah, to commemorate the miracle, one light for every night the oil burned. The event is  historical, though the miracle perhaps is not as well documented. I can imagine that as each night passed and more lights on the Temple Menorah were lit in the darkness, the hopes and joys of the Jewish people were also lit as the realization of the Macabeean victory set in. By the time all lights were burning, the brilliance of the miracle - that the Jews had regained their religious freedom in spite of great odds - would have been obvious to all. The Macabeean Jews had accomplished the improbable, their, "Hope beyond hope." The light in the hearts and souls of these Jewish people must have been visibly radiant.

          You can find at least fourteen definitions of hope, if, as I did, you look the word up in an old-fashioned dictionary - the print kind. The root of hope is keu, the same root in which the word curve comes from. It means a change, like going a different way. In The Miracle Chase I share a poem in which I write about hope as if Hope were my friend. She runs ahead of me and shows me that the future is there, lying just ahead on a path I can't yet see, "just between the mountains." Hope kept me going in some pretty dark days that required a course correction. We all need a friend like that; we all need that kind of Hope. 
     
          Allan Hamilton, who is a doctor, shares this abut hope in his TED talk. "Hope is the combination of ability and power. Hope is the ability to see a future that's better than the present and it is the power to try to make it happen." It is powerful medicine. Study after study shows that there are better outcomes for health if one has hope. Dr. Hamilton feels no one should be able to take away another's hope, including doctors, no matter what the tests show, no matter how dire the circumstances may seem.

          What I've learned about hope, is that it requires personal engagement. You aren't really flexing your hope muscles if you are passively waiting for something out there to happen. "To strive for, to wish, i.e. "to hope" is to want something to happen but it's more than that. It's believing something CAN happen. Young Greta Thunberg, whose campaigning on climate change has garnered international recognition, including  being selected as the 2019 Person of the Year by Time Magazine, has said, "I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic, and act as if the house was on fire." I hope she really means that we need more than hope to change course and go a different way, for we must have hope.

          Martin Luther says that "Everything that is done in this world is done by hope." If this is true, then what kind of expectation should we have for ourselves and others around the action of hope? What is the connection between finding new ways to work for change and letting our own internal hope-light shine?

          For if hope is a verb, surely, we are its nouns. There would be no Festival of the Lights without the Maccabees. We are the lights that mobilize hope. We need the fighters and we need the advocates and the activists who tell us hope is not enough, but we will not see change without hope.

          Tonight, as I look out to the dark night on one of the longest nights of the year, I note the abundance of stars in the sky and the number of candles and bright lights in my home, helping me celebrate the season. May the lights of the season illuminate your path ahead, and as Katie, Joan and I did, may you find many miracles along the way that inspire you to hope. 

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          For part of the year, I live next door to Carmel, CA where Clint Eastwood is a fixture. In 1983, he spoke the words made famous by his character Dirty Harry, "Go ahead, make my day." In point of fact, Clint makes any number of people's day by his casual appearance around town as he goes about his day-to-day life. Instead of the intent in Dirty Harry's signature phrase, I prefer to think about what would it take to make someone's day in a good way?
 

          In miracle jargon, we call this being the miracle.  Sometimes we are the right person in the right place at the right time in someone else's life. We have a unique opportunity to make their day, or their year, or even change their future. For the Pilgrims, this was Massasoit, the Sachem aka Chief, and his Wampanoag tribe who helped them survive. 

          Growing up in Massachusetts, Thanksgiving was a big deal. When every six years or so it coincided with my birthday (like it does this year) I thought I hit the jackpot. I considered it my own personal miracle; it felt that special. I loved the concept of celebrating all that was around us, from nearby Plymouth Rock, to the parade on TV, the bountiful food, and the family we were able to see before the stormy December weather in New England restricted our travel.
 

          I now realize that being grateful is only part of the Thanksgiving celebration. The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, is that while Thanksgiving begins with gratefulness, the real point is in recognizing that sometimes we are called to be the miracle for those whom we encounter. This message hasn't changed over the centuries, and is the same, whether we go looking to offer assistance, or whether those in need just show up at our door, or on our shore, or in our life.
 

**Massasoit Great Sachem of the Wampanoags
Protector and Preserver of the Pilgrims, 1621
 

          You, our readers, have been the miracle for us. You have inspired us, humbled us and led us to this new adventure on our miracle chase journey. Your honesty, your willingness to share, your vulnerability and your strength in the stories you have told us is a gift for which we will be forever grateful.  Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving. (Joan) 

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