And this is what comes from dabbling; I mean you can’t practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it. – Aunt Jet, Practical Magic
This quote, spoken by Dianne Wiest’s character, can be applied broadly to many aspects of life, including experiencing the miraculous.
If you shun something, don’t expect to see/experience/enjoy it.
The fact that there are often logical, if not scientific explanations for supernatural phenomena need not invalidate the phenomena. Such explanations don’t necessarily disprove the supernatural, merely provide potential explanations for something that might otherwise be considered mysterious.
Consider that many scientific explanations are not facts, even though they may be treated as such, and that a fact only remains a fact until a new fact comes along to supersede it.
For example, heliocentric theory, that the sun, and not the earth, is at the center of our universe, eventually became accepted as truth over a thousand years after the Indian astronomer Aryabhata proposed such.
Incidentally, he wrote this in a book a thousand years before Coprenicus suggested it, and few believed him either.
So, how does one enjoy, experience, or find the miraculous?
A good start would be to accept that the miraculous appears before us every day in large and small ways.
Some who bend toward the philosophical may suggest waking up each day is in itself a miracle.
In my book Angels and Engineers, I write how skeptical I was about the existence of angels. Years after I’d decided they were a story told to children, a series of events changed that perception. But if I hadn’t seen them for the miraculous events they were, if I’d dismissed them as coincidences or decided that I’d somehow manifested them myself, I would have missed out on a continuing source of wonder and joy.
It all started with a book. My mom gave me a book on angels as a Christmas gift. In the book I read that to find a penny could be interpreted as a hello from an angel. Considering this tidbit a novelty, I went about my life.
That spring, after parking, I noticed a penny by the car tire. Picking it up, I recalled the anecdote. Smiling, I shoved the penny in my pocket and walked into the post office, mentally challenging the angels to prove it was them.
“Do it again,” I said.
The next stop was a shoe store. While standing in line at checkout, my daughter tugged on my shirt.
“Look.”
On the floor, right next to where I stood, was a penny. Laughing, I picked it up and handed it to her. “I guess an angel left this for you.”
As we drove to get a bite I told the angels I still wasn’t convinced, that I needed more signs.
“This time do something other than a coin,” I instructed.
After lunch we visited a bookstore. As I walked through the front doors I saw a kiosk displaying newly released books. Angel Time by Anne Rice was situated right up front.
Additional angel “coincidences” continued until I mentally admitted that I believed the angels were real and were in my life.
It didn’t stop there. A few days later I read another angel book in which the author, Doreen Virtue, suggested that in addition to pennies, feathers can be signs from angels. Beginning the moment I stepped out of the car after returning from the bookstore, and continuing for days, I began to find feathers in odd places.
A family joy. The whole family got a kick out of the numerous pennies and feathers that continued to pop up in front of us, sometimes as if by magic.
At one point I had a purse full of pennies and feathers as the kids wanted me to hang onto these messages from heaven.
A family wonder. Our family recently went through a disruptive time when we were unexpectedly forced to move out of our rental home because of black mold. While we waited in limbo, we did the best we could to keep our spirits up but it was tough at times.
One day, while working on Her Sanctuary, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. A tiny white feather was falling onto the dining room table next to my laptop.
I have no idea where it came from. I doubt it floated down from the ceiling.
It had been months since I’d seen a penny or a feather, but I still took it for what it was. A hello and a bit of everything is going to be okay.
I wouldn’t let anyone move the little feather and I continued to smile at it as I worked away.
I truly got a sense of comfort seeing that tiny white feather.
Hang onto the wonder. Within a few days of the feather’s sudden appearance, the kids began finding pennies and feathers in odd places. And not just any pennies, shiny new ones. And the feathers were unique and very colorful.
Realizing my little white feather might be accidentally cleaned off the table, I put it in a little dish, adding the pennies and feathers the kids were finding.
Before we moved out of that temporary home I zipped all the feathers and coins (we found dimes, nickels, and the occasional quarter) into a baggie. I promised the kids we’d find a place to put them as a reminder that we are in touch with angels.
New home, more angels. We were out for a walk the other night and I was pondering a concern. At the very same moment I heard God’s voice in my head saying Have Faith, I looked down to see a perfect feather at my feet.
Grabbing it up I put it in my pocket until I could transfer it to the jar we have set aside for angel messages.
We continue to find pennies and dimes (and even a $20) at our feet! They all reside in our angel jar, physical evidence that wonder and the miraculous are all around us.
A bit of Feng Shui – the angel jar sits in the area for Helpful People/Travel. After all, the angels have most definitely helped us find joy, if not faith.
