Thanks to the Bible and some fairly recent Hollywood epics from the 50s and 60s, most of us have been taught to expect miracles in the form of winged angels, burning shrubs imbued with the gift of gab, or entire seas that part down the middle at the mere wave of a wooden staff. All good stuff mind you. But in all honesty, that’s not what I commonly think of when I ponder over the word ‘miracle.’
Just for a moment I’d like to challenge your current belief system by offering up a slightly different definition of the word:
Miracle [mir-uh-kuhl]; noun: When something seemingly impossible becomes possible.
That’s it. No mention of extraordinary events that surpass all known human or natural powers, usually ascribed to a supernatural cause. Nothing about God or any other deity of your choice. No blinding lights that throw people from horses. None of that ‘Spielbergian’ stuff.
As far as I’m concerned, miracles happen all the time. In fact, whether you were aware of it or not, you’ve probably experienced a few miracles of your own. Let me pull an example from my Life that’ll help illustrate the point I’m trying to make.
I loved to draw when I was a kid . . . at least until the inner-critic showed up, which for me happened around the age of 7. From that point on, drawing slowly began to loose its allure. Instead of simply enjoying the process of freely creating - without a care of what anyone else thought, including myself - I began to pick-apart every little detail of my pint-size technique (if I even had one) until all the fun was gone. I was so hard on myself that almost everything I attempted to draw ended-up in the trash . . . except for one notebook that I found a while back buried amidst other childhood mementos in my parents’ garage.
Imagine a spiral notebook made up of 50 or so pieces of regular lined paper. Now imagine that at the center of every one of those pages is a tiny pencil drawing inspired by the movie The Empire Strikes Back - this was 1981 after all, and I was 9 years old. The drawing(s) could be anything pulled from the Star Wars Universe at that time; a Snowtrooper, a Tauntaun, some TIE-Fighters, whatever. That’s all this notebook contained . . . page after page of empty white space, minus the few scant scribblings in the middle of each sheet.
My mother kept it all these years because she thought I’d - in her own words - “made a flip-book.” You know, those little books filled with a bunch of drawn images that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when you flip the pages quickly, the pictures appear to move like an animated film. All fine and well, only that wasn’t what I was going for. The truth was: I was so disappointed with each drawing, that within only a few strokes, I’d given up completely and moved on to the next page . . . only to continue giving up over and over again until the notebook was filled . . . filled with a whole lotta nothin.’ After that I pretty much abandoned drawing altogether. Yeah, I experimented with other kinds of creative outlets over the years - acting, photography, film making, screen writing, TV production - but none of them ever ‘clicked’ with me in any sort of deep-down-in-my-heart-authentic-way . . . until I discovered painting in March 2010.
After 30 years (30 years!) of me yo-yo-ing around from one creative medium to the next - all very much worth it by the way as I learned a ton - I’ve found myself right back where I started . . . drawing. Only now there’s paint involved . . . which complicates the entire process considerably. And I didn’t go to school to learn either - too expensive. No sir. I’ve been teaching myself how draw and paint. And on top of all this, I’ve started an online business - OM Made Studios - that centers almost exclusively around my art, a move that’s totally off-the-wall crazy, especially given my not-so-stellar track record - you know, of throwing artwork in the garbage. Now . . . from where I’m sitting, the fact that all of THIS has unfolded in my Life is a bona fide freakin’ Miracle.
So yeah, as my definition suggested at the beginning of this post, “something seemingly impossible” has indeed “become possible.” See, miracles are everyday occurrences . . . but you have to be consciously 'Awake' to actually notice them.
Show up.
Pay attention.
Be Yourself.
-Christopher
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