Miracles?

I would love to share some, but the "no religion" rule stops me from sharing them. Sorry!

The fact that a bunch of my friends continually bitched about having to play Cribbage, that drizzly Sunday afternoon, back in the late 1950's, eventually became the direct cause for this CRAZY LIFE, I've been living, these last 5 decades.

I don't believe in miracles. Its easy to see something as one, as coincidences can happen. Or there are nice people that help others, but I can't call that a miracle. There is miracle whip, but that mayonnaise isn't all that great.

As long as no one looks for a cause and effect answer. Anything can be a miracle. Some people call rainbows a miracle if that's the sign they were looking for.


Was it a miracle that the guy tossed a ball and it went in? No, it took skill and practice. Was it a miracle no one was killed in an accident? No, it took better car designs and airbags. The list goes on.

----Mike Savad

Could you tell us more about that Cribbage game, Roger? How did that inspire you to change your life?

Would you like to hear a story about the kindness of strangers? It isn't a miracle exactly but it's pretty great.

Sure, Peggy!

OK! I had a big surprise just before Christmas. I was actually quite sick with Covid when I got two emails from a Canadian art supply store. Both of them were to tell me I had gift cards for their store...one for $20 and the other for $200! (Our pipes were also frozen so we also had no running water for 3 days at this time but that's another story.)

Thinking it must be a scam, I found their email address and wrote them. A woman quickly wrote back and told me the gift cards were legit. She was going to look into it for me.

She got back to me within an hour. She had discovered that the gift cards were bought by a man in a city one province over from me. Apparently he had told the clerk there that he admired my art. I don't know anybody in the city where he bought the cards.

So I recently went online and had a great time buying some art supplies for a couple of techniques I had been meaning to try. The emails I had received had the gift card codes so it was easy peasy.

I still have no idea who this person was who gave me this incredible gift! And I thought it was interesting that it happened during a time when I was pretty down...aside from having Covid and having no running water, I was really feeling the loss of my family especially hard with Christmas approaching.

If by some miracle the man who bought those cards happens to be reading this, I want to thank him for his incredible generosity. I was blown away by it and he really uplifted my spirits.

That's a wonderful story, Peggy! And I can certainly appreciate the kindness of strangers - the help that people here have given me. I'm glad you had that bright moment in the midst of your troubles. Thank you for sharing it.

Usually what I see is something like... The tornado ripped through this county, all 200 residents, including the orphanage and all the puppies were killed.... It was a miracle that 2 inmates survived.

That's how they use it on the news anyway.


----Mike Savad

J L. & Peggy,

My story, that I have told before, certainly, does NOT rely on the kindness of others.


Drizzly Sunday Afternoon, Quogue, NY, Very Expensive Beach House, Summer 1959

All my friends, continually, complained about being stuck in the house.

After constantly goading them to get up and GO OUT and enjoy the subtle beauty of the shoreline.

"We'll Get Wet!!", was their response

"Isn't that why we're here ?" was my retort

Frustrated, I exclaimed, "THERE ARE TREASURES OUT THERE,..AND I'M COMING BACK WITH ONE"


Having no idea of what I'm going to come back with, out I went.

But, I was confident that I would come back with something.

After a couple of attempts, I picked up a pair of mussel shells, saying to myself,..."They look like vulture wings...what could I use for a head ?"

THERE IT WAS!!.. a Crab Claw!!,..Then 2 strands of Rusty Snow Fence Wire for the legs....A Hunk of Cork for the base...And finally a Glob of Black Tar (tar ball) to stick it all together.

VOILA!! '' The FIRST VULTURE SCULPTURE.


For the next 15 years, I might have made 3 more, with different people at different beaches., as I spent all my time and effort pursuing the profession of Architecture.

It was in the mid 1970's, I started making vulture sculptures as a diversion.( perhaps therapy)

Eventually it became all consuming.

And the rest is History,


As someone would say, who knew me BV (before vultures), seeing me peddling my new art at a street fair,

" I amazed how you found something that fitted your neurosis perfectly....You have to be different...And you have to be in complete control...Even if it's only 10 foot by 10 foot space"

My significant other experienced a miracle. He was putting up Christmas lights many years ago and he had this obsession with going to the top of our house which is way higher than average with 12x12 pitches at probably 25 to 30 feet off the ground.

Anyway, we have this ladder that extends to the top of our roof line, but it's very heavy and one has to lock it in place after extending its length. It's old and sits out in the weather so it sticks a bit when trying to lengthen its height.

My husband went to the top of our roof line and realized he forgot to lock the ladder in place.

Right before the ladder went down, my husby heard a voice asking if she could help him. The ladder fell but didn't hurt my husband and as heavy as the ladder is, it didn't crush his feet, it stopped before it crushed my husband's foot.

He said that when he got down from the ladder, he looked around for the voice and no one was there. He felt like this was a miracle.

Wow, Lisa, cool story!

Thanks for telling us what inspired you to create vulture sculptures, Roger. Sounds like maybe serendipity was involved.

Many over the years.
It is a miracle that Abbey must be off tonight and this thread has survived a little while. :-)

Well, by "miracles", I wasn't necessarily referring to them in the context of religion.

I've seen a few "miracles" in life, but, being ephemeral, unexplained and ambiguous, they could have been good luck or just the alignment of the photons at that micro-moment in time. I will never know.

I agree J L miracles have nothing to do with religion.

I felt like it is a miracle everyday at my job in science for many reasons!

Just think of all the atoms especially the unstable ones that have half lives that save lives everyday!

Several in my lifetime. I will as best that I can explain one of my favorites without getting banned. My oldest son was born with a horrible foot deformity. The bones in his foot were grossly enlarged and he had severe pain and swelling all of the time. He had to wear a brace that extended mid way up to his calf to walk. When he was about 19 years old I took him with me to a (function or meeting). We ----- for his foot to be healed. He felt no better but went home and threw his brace away. The next morning when he awakened, no pain, no swelling! He is now 40 and has never had any more pain, difficulty walking or swelling. I will forever be in awe and grateful.

Actually, miracles is a religious terminology

However, for this instance I'm referring to the other two now widely used meanings

1 a remarkable event or development that brings very welcome consequences.
"it was a miracle that more people hadn't been killed"
2 an exceptional product or achievement, or an outstanding example of something.
"a machine which was a miracle of design"

Which do not have to be of religious connotation. Therefore this thread may continue.

Peggy what a lovely Christmas gift! I can well imagine how it would lift your spirits at such a time when you needed it so badly. Maybe that in itself was the miracle.

I am a strong believer in the theory of "Paying it forward" so I hope you remember this and do something equally nice for someone else when you find the right time. I try to do little things for strangers when I can. When I am in a lineup at a grocery store and someone comes behind me with one or two items I always let them cut in front of me. Most times people are shocked by that simple act of kindness and I always respond with asking them to remember that feeling and pay it forward to someone else who could use a break. Little things can make all the difference in someone's life. It doesn't even have to be a monetary thing. It can be an action or deed that can help another person or even an animal to get through their day.

Just imagine if you have the opportunity to pay it forward in a big way? I think that would give me a real feeling of euphoria!

I will relate one of several psychic experiences when I was around 20 yrs old and had just started my first job/career. This was before any laws allowing right-hand turns on red...

I was working in Arlington VA. After getting off work at rush hour, the traffic was extremely heavy.

There was one light I used on my way home which was notorious for being backed up, maybe allowing one car to proceed when waiting for others that had the right of way.

I had the radio playing while waiting to get to the light and make a right turn. I also think I might have been in somewhat of a daze by then.

I believe about 15 minutes had passed and I finally was there. The light turned green and I had to wait for the traffic that had the right-of-way first. Finally I saw an opportunity and as I was about to give the car some gas, a voice from the radio said, "The Signal Says STOP!". I immediately slammed on the breaks.

When I looked up after that split second, the light was red and traffic was buzzing left and right again. I would have caused an accident had I proceeded and may have lost my life as well as others!


If anyone is looking for additional info about this incident, let me say that this was when I first left home from the Eastern Shore of Maryland (All quiet country). This was my first career job. I had never been in a cab, plane, or bus (other than a school bus). I was extremely introverted, shy, and increasingly under pressure. I don't know if my mind scrambled words that I heard to tell me what I needed to hear, or weather that phrase was the actual words that came from the radio speaker. It seems impractical to me that it was but when your life was possibly saved because of it, you don't question.

Do you think it's a miracle that I've lived through 2 bouts of cancer and 3 heart attacks?

If not for the advancement of medical "miracles" I wouldn't be writing this now.

We humans are pretty smart when we want to be. The doctors anyway. Me not so much.

The doctors who treated my cancer were all wonderful, as opposed to the doctor who botched my sister's cancer diagnosis and put her through false hope and great pain until her death. It was so traumatizing that when I was diagnosed with cancer, I initially told my doctors that...well, I was going to refuse treatment. Better that than what my sister went through. They talked me out of it. I'm broke but alive. I don't know if all that can be called a miracle. It is what it is.

Leslie, I'm also a big believer in paying it forward. It gives me a kick to help other people when I can. In fact, I felt like the person who bought me the gift cards was maybe paying it forward because he knew about something I did recently. I'll probably never know!

Wow, David, that's a lot to go through! You're a survivor for sure. I've had other not so great experiences with doctors and medical science...been misdiagnosed with serious things (including cancer) four times in my life. I guess you could call it a miracle that in all four cases I was told I never actually had the thing I'd been diagnosed with. What's that all about, other than a miracle?

JL, I was typing at the same time as you were. I'm so sorry for your experience with your sister.

Back at the beginning of the 70’s just a few weeks before our first wedding anniversary, I received my Marine Corps orders for “westpac” (western pacific) which actually translated to Vietnam, in which I had not yet spent any time. Coming at this time in our young marriage was devastating.

Before our anniversary arrived, I boarded a flight for the west coast and”staging” at USMC Camp Pendleton for two weeks of training. We literally did not know if we would ever see each other again.

Anyone can call it what they want but for reasons I never discovered, I was held back in Okinawa in transit to the war in Vietnam. Once I was sure I was staying in Okinawa, I found out that, in fact, my wife could visit me for a few weeks at our own expense, which she did.

But she had to return to the U.S. after the allotted time was up, according to Marine regulations. But she could stay if she was “sponsored”by a private entity. While there we were attending a church which so happened ran a school and needed a teacher for A group of Okinawa children. Having been studying to become a certified teacher before we were married, she was hired and therefore sponsored by the school and able to stay on the island for my remaining 9 months of my tour of duty.

And to add to this”miracle/serendipity” her flight back to the U. S. was space A which meant we flew back to the west coast together on a military transport, saving us the cost of her return airline ticket.

A more recent time in 2020

My Cardiologist upon my first post surgery appointment with him called me his “miracle patient”.

I had just undergone triple bypass surgery. A normally non-eventful everyday operation even though they have to open your chest to operate on your heart.

However, about 10 hours after surgery while recovering in the ICU, the nurses realized I was experiencing a stroke.

Apparently my Cardiologist, when he heard this, thought I probably would not survive. But here I am

This world operates (no pun intended) in strange ways and nobody,IMHO, can predict what is coming around the corner, good or bad.

The best I can say is a quote I keep in my studio, “Attitude is everything. So pick a good one.”

Here is a strange thing that happened. When I was a teen I used to go to small parties at the home of twin sisters with the last name Simon. They lived in what can only be called an old mansion. The living room had book shelves full of leatherbound volumes, which we were forbidden to touch. At one point I heard that the books were all comic books, not legal volume as we surmised. I thought that was a joke.

One day the girls' father invited me into his art studio adjacent to the living room. He was a cartoonist and was working on a cover for Sick magazine, which was a similar to Mad magazine. He would explained that as a parody magazine he had a lot of freedom to draw stuff that otherwise might be copyrighted. And he also explained that the character he was drawing, which was a look alike to Mad's Alfred E Nueman was in the public domain. He showed me a painting from the 1800s where the character originated. I was not an artist or even a photographer but I found his knowledge and preoccupation with copyright laws just as fascinating as his studio. The girls went off to college and that was the last I saw of them. I did however run into their father at lease one more time and got the same tour of his studio.

Now here is where it gets strange. Sometime about 40 years later I had a dream about him in the middle of the night. I was trying to remember his name and wondered how old he might be now. Then it came to me. His name was Joe. Simon. In a cold sweat I got out of bed and used Google to look up the name. It turns out that Joe Simon was a co creator of Spiderman and a whole lot of other characters! We never knew!! And according to Wikipedia he was still alive and in his 90s. There was a bio but only mentioned his sons and not the twins and not that he lived in the place where we knew him. I guess he was very protective of his family and didn't want the world to know where he lived at that time.

I immediately told some of my old friends that knew him and they didn't know that either. A few days later his name was on the cover of the New York Times. He had passed away. So in his last dying day I suddenly thought of him and urgently had to see how he was and who he was.

It turns out that Joe had spent a large part of his life defending his copyright to Spiderman. He wrote 2 books which detail his early years in the comic business and how he bacame the first editor of Marvel comics. And how Spiderman had already been created outside his office and how he an Kirby kept a separate office to create comics. Hence his preoccupation with copyright laws and his motivation for making Sick magazine. He had been forbidden to draw Spiderman for decades! But with a parody magazine he had more artistic freedom. Joe was an ld man when he finally settled out of court with Marvel. Spiderman had become a major motion picture and Marvel had to settle with Joe. HHi sons and daughters had become celebrities in their own right. Joe got back in the pubic eye in his old age and brought the family to comic conventions. Over the years Joe never stopped drawing Spiderman. He just gifted his drawings and never published them.

So to me, it was a miracle that I had somehow connected with Joe in my sleep right before he died, 4 decades after I had just about forgotten him. I am now in touch with the twins on Facebook. There are both artists and like posting drawings Joe made that were never published and like finding Spiderman influenced art everywhere.

That is a fascinating memory, Bradford.

Not really a miracle, but an incredible stroke of luck. I was on vacation in Washington DC in 2008, and I was wandering through Arlington Cemetery. Of course I was taking pictures, but then I ran out of room on the SD card in my camera because I had forgotten to clear it out at the end of the previous day. (These days, I'm much more prepared with extra cards and stuff.) Of course I could have just gone to a store to buy a new one, but that would have cut my tour of Arlington short. As I was pondering what to do, I looked down on the ground... and right there by my foot was an SD card. Someone had dropped it, and my first thought was that it contained someone else's vacation memories so I thought I'd look through it to see if there were any clues who it belonged to. The card was completely empty, so I used it and continued my tour uninterrupted (aside from the maybe 2 minutes of pondering what to do).

These are great stories, everyone!

With all the dumb and dangerous things I've done, it's a miracle I'm still here...

I hear that, Ed.

For me every day with a sun raising is a miracle, because I can't repet that ..

And for the strange, hard to explain events, several ..

I spoke to a girl at the party, she said to visit her next day, but we never meet again. 10 years latter, still styding, new neighbours, we hang around with them all day, came up one of them was from a city 1000 miles away, same city from which was the girl from the begining of the story. I asked do she maybe know that girl, the answer was: My first neighbour! As she described her corectly I new that was true info.

A small world miracle ..

I think what we could consider miracles happen every day, if we are open to seeing them as such.

The Jacksonville Jaguars comeback from a 0 to 27 point deficit at halftime to win 31 to 30 against the LA Chargers may be evidence of miracles.

^^^ Good one, Drew.

Either everything is a miracle or nothing is. You pretty much have to have the sensibility of a poet to go with the former.

I'm anti-miracle... "I dream the destruction of this perverse reality." - Octavio Paz (1990 Nobel Prize in Literature)

I traveled clear across the world only to see several people from my hometown. How is that possible? Miracle.

That story happened in 1963. It was late afternoon. Our team was on a mountaineering expedition in the Caucasus mountains. We were at approximately 2.5 miles in height. Snow and mountains were everywhere. The sky was clear, with only one very small white cloud on the horizon. Sun was not visible.

Suddenly we all saw one single red line appear from the cloud. If that happened today, I will likely say that it is an output of a powerful laser emitting a red light. But ... the first laser was invented in 1961. In 1963 just a few powerful lasers existed in the world, and not on satellites, and not so powerful to be visible across the whole horizon. But there was something even more strange.

Approximately after passing through half of the horizon length, this single red line broke sharply at about a 30-degree angle into a different direction. That sharp direction change happened in the clear sky. All that miracle was visible for more than ten minutes.

I am a physicist by education. I worked in physics after graduating from the institute for more than 30 years. I was engaged in optics, and, in particular, lasers. I have no physical explanation for what I saw in 1963 in the mountains.

Now, who could tell that, .. I was looking for physicist engaged in optics for days .. this could be a miracle.. may I post few photos and ask you for a coment, Yuri, please?

Hi, Milija,

I sent you e-mail.

--Yury

Ok, I saw, thank you!

Life itself is a miracle. Being alive is a miracle. Open your eyes and your soul, YOU are a miracle. We are all miracles. I have lived a life highlighted by miracles. My first book. "Stories Of A Lifetime: extraordinary events in an extraordinary life" reveals many of my witnessed miracles.

Cool shares!

The word for miracle didn't start out as religious terminology, but was co-opted later. In latin it just meant amazing, remarkable or unusual. It's Indo-European root just meant to smile or be astonished. Religion crept in as an explanation for something good that had an unclear cause.

When I was brought up, EVERYTHING was a MIRACLE

I guess the miracle of Tide is in line with the latin original, Mirabile Dictu, which really just meant wonderful to say. Back then the gods did intervene sometimes, but it was arbitrary and capricious. They'd be as likely to squash you as to help you.

Picked up my soon to be adopted son from LaGuardia airport with his birth mom. Went to a Chinese restuarant. My cookie said “You will succeed in what you adopt”

Lisa, Brian: Now, that's a miracle.

Bill, David, Ed: It's not your time to go.

Bradford: That's an amazing spiritual story.

John: Karma has been good to you.

Roger: I had a laugh when I saw the vintage TIDE poster, it's actually my choice for washing clothes.

Tony: Congratulations, ~ very cool.


I think BABIES are miracles. ~ Life

I know a few miracles, some with explanations, some unknown.


Andrew: Well said.

Well, I think miracles happen all the time, at least they do in my world. But a lot of times people see these kinds of circumstances as things that DIDN'T happen but could / should have. Or they just brush them off as coincidences and don't really take a moment to stop and realize just what's really going on.

Example, my husband hit a giant deer 2 weeks ago. Number one, it's a miracle it didn't happen sooner. We lived in a very rural area for 28 years and neither one of us ever hit a deer, though it was a very common occurrence there. We moved here in 2015, still rural, and still plenty of sad critter accidents all over the roads. In my husband's recent accident, the car was completely totaled, and sadly the deer didn't make it. Weirdly the air bag didn't deploy. But my husband is fine. If you'd seen the car you'd agree, that was a miracle. Also, it was rush hour on a tiny country road and up ahead is our Metro stop. The train was actually stopped at the station so there was no oncoming traffic. That was a miracle.

I think "seeing" miracles is all about perception.

"We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are."
Anais Nin

Lois, that happened to me on my motorbike. I was doing a good 70mph and should have been wiped out also. Managed to hold it but lost the faring and the deer lost his life

Stopped at the side of the road and just breathed very heavily for about half hour before being able to get back on the bike

Oh Abbie. On a motorbike!!!!!! Good grief, girl!!!!! Yes, that was a miracle!! So glad you're okay!!

I must say I have witnessed a miracle, I was supposed to be dead according to my 900 plus page medical report for a 4 1/2 day hospital stay after getting covid and having had a breathing emergency. I had to have my heart stopped in the ER, I was supposed to have been medically disabled. I was pumped up with 28 medications while in the hospital. I signed myself out of the hospital refusing all treatments. medications and diagnosis.

That was two years ago, Today I take zero medications, I'm healthy and working.

Yes, I believe in miracles.

Way to go Mario!

Mario,

I believed in YOU

Mario! Some people were asking about you and have emailed or messaged you. Can you please find the messages/emails and put them out of their misery. They were very worried