I was walking in a park the other day, and I passed some children, and they were running and singing and screaming and teasing each other.
You know, when the wind was blowing in the trees, the trees were undulating somewhat, and you were left, truly left, with this wonderful miracle, this true miracle of life.
And many people ask, what is a miracle?
Well, I guess we could all have some examples of miracles, but a miracle, for the most part, is something that goes beyond the ordinary.
Perhaps there’s natural laws, scientific laws, and somehow the miracle doesn’t fit quite in.
It’s something magical in that sense, truly magical.
Many years ago, I was supposed to get on an airplane, and my colleague came into the office and said to me, Leon, we have to go.
It’s time to catch the plane.
And at the time, almost all small airlines were virtually deregulated in Canada.
And yes, of course, there were safety checks, but not at all like there are today with security, etc.
Obviously, there was some, but not like today.
It wasn’t so stern.
So you could literally get in a little airplane and fly between Vancouver and the island, Vancouver Island, in eight or nine minutes, and you would land in the middle in a city called Nanaimo, which is where we were going.
Very easy.
So back to my tale.
So I stood up, time to go, and I felt this invisible hand, quite honestly, pushing me down, and I sat back down.
And then he said again, Come on, Leon.
We got to go.
And I stood up again, and again the same sort of thing.
So, okay.
I stayed in the office, did some work, walked down the street to have some dinner, walked back, read some of the book I was reading and fell asleep.
Got up rather early, went to the office, and my mother phoned, and my mother never phoned me, as a rule.
My father phoned, but not my mother.
She phoned at early, seven o’clock.
She said, Leon, how are you?
And I said, geez, Mom, I’m fine.
Why?
What are you doing?
She said, you haven’t heard.
I said, heard what?
And she said, well, gosh, the plane crashed.
They were all killed.
Now, I was quite stunned, to be honest, and emotionally upset for my colleagues and their families and everything else.
But the point was, was that a miracle in my life?
And to this day, I think, yes, absolutely.
And I think all of us have had, maybe not so dramatic, but all of us have had similar miracles along the way in life, right?
Things that happen, serendipity or, Carl Jung likes to call them, synchronicity, meaningful consequences, whatever they are, they seem to happen.
So I think the point of this type of thinking is that I should be open to the miracles of life.
I think the very first miracle that happens to each and every one of us, each and every day, is that when we wake up, there has been absolutely no guarantee that we should have woken up, especially as you age supposedly, people die in their sleep all the time.
So the gift of life truly is a miracle, truly.
And then, given that we appreciate this and we show our gratitude for this wonderful gift called my life, then we must manage this gift called my life properly.
And that requires some effort for sure.
Because to manage me is a difficult task, because I think all of us know this at 20 years of age, that we are complex beings.
It’s not going to be easy to be the fully fleshed out me.
Firstly, I’m going to need some training.
I’ve got to go to university.
And this is where I think we get a little bit tricked, because just going to university and getting some diploma or degree is probably a waste of time, truly, unless we learn how to learn.
And I speak to a lot of people that have been to school, and they tell me often, I forgot what I learned at university, etc., etc.
Real tragedy, because if you don’t learn how to learn in the modern age, you’re going to suffer, because the technology and the world is going to run in front of you.
And the reason that so many people today are so unhappy, I read, is because we live in this bizarre age of comparison.
And, look at my body, there’s another body that’s better, look at my psyche, there’s another psyche that’s more intelligent, etc.
And it just runs on, truly.
The type of thinking that’s a total waste of time.
Recently, there’s been a large pornographic exhibition in Amsterdam, and a lot of people came.
And I think, wow, this is very interesting, because those people are selling their bodies for money.
For money.
Now, you ask yourself, would I sell my body for money?
My body also possesses, perhaps, self-esteem, self-respect, a soul.
And after I’m out of this kind of lifestyle, what kind of being will I be?
And records tell that not good.
A lot of people that have been in that business suffer.
So I guess you can easily dissuade yourself from finding miracles by your own lifestyle, can’t you?
So if you don’t believe that you can be special, why am I here?
What’s my mission?
What happens when I die?
If you don’t think you are special, I’m sure miracles are not going to come to you at all.
Never, never.
And you’re going to be a bitter individual at the end of your life, and you’re going to die a bad death, guaranteed, I think.
But if you believe something more enlightened, then I think good things will come.
Carl Jung, he says that miracles are, like I said earlier, synchronicity.
It’s an inner psychological state that aligns with the outside, the external.
Things just happen.
And, gosh, if we go way back, the very first Catholic philosopher, St.
Augustine, he says that miracles, of course, are given by God, basically.
I believe this, but many people wouldn’t believe this, would they?
A young woman the other day, when we were talking about the walk on the El Camino, I asked her, did you have a spiritual experience?
And she said, well, I’m not a Christian.
And I said, gosh, nor is God.
God also isn’t a Christian.
But people like Soren Kierkegaard didn’t really believe in miracles, but he said that all is possible with an intrinsic leap of faith.
I think the man to really look up is a chap called William James.
And he also said that personal experiences are perhaps like the divine breaking into life, right?
So I think it’s interesting if you could watch for the miracles in your life, this serendipity.
Perhaps you don’t even think of it, but you’re offered that new promotion, or perhaps you invest some money and you make more money than you should, or you meet that special person just by chance that you’re going to perhaps fall in love with, for instance, right?
So we live in a miraculous existence, I think, if we acknowledge that there’s no one like me, there never has been and there never will be, but I must truly open me, right?
Because it seems that we need to do a lot of work on humanity, right?
And the only way we’re ever going to change anything is to change the self.
Because you can’t change people, really, it’s impossible.
This is true whether you have children, spouse, wife, whatever, right?
You can’t change anyone.
You can only change through examples.
That’s why the great religious leaders, Buddha, Christ, individuals such as this, changed the world because they were magical people who had changed themselves, right?
And they had gone forward in that sense.
Remember that miracles can have a religious side, extraordinary acts of God, perhaps a philosophical side.
Gosh, what would you say?
Maybe violations of nature, psychological side.
That’s a huge area.
The minute you open the aspect, you open the door to the self, you can’t really close it.
So you have to be a little careful and decide whether you want to open the door.
But there are many miracles inside there, aren’t there?
And on day one of our walk on the Camino, we experienced some miracles.
So if you go to our website dbawageslave.com, you can actually go and see day one and what we experienced on the way.
So you know what they say.
You know what they say.
Critical thinking is everything, especially if you’re looking for miracles.
And critical thinking is great, truly great.
You take care, God bless.
Bye bye.