How many of us are waiting for a miracle, a savior, for Santa Claus, an enlightened Teacher, a lover — anyone who would pick us up and carry us into happiness? We are waiting for someone who could take on the burden of responsibility for our lives.
Waiting for love to come and save us gives love the power of an external force, something that descends on us from the outside and makes us happy. But from the outside, we can only get triggered. Our responses to triggers are entirely our own.
Love is something we can and do cultivate within ourselves. The object of our love may not be interested, he can leave, he can even die — which is his full right. We choose our reactions and responses, but we cannot control the life of another. Even the idea of what “love” is differs widely from person to person.
Imagine the whole world sitting and waiting for salvation, a miracle, for “love”.
There are two kinds of miracles. The first kind are the “natural” miracles we take for granted. The sunrise every morning, the miracle of breath, the miracle of our bodies… The second kind are the miracles we create ourselves. So many of us don’t work miracles because we are waiting for someone else to come and perform them for us.
The truth is that no one will come. We will either show up to save ourselves — or we won’t. The “Universe” will not save us, either. The choice of how to use our own talents is ours.
In a way, waiting for a miracle is akin to infantilism, the spiritual kind. We refuse to grow up and step into our own power.
Imagine a baby whose every need is satisfied by his mother. The mother comes running as soon as the baby begins crying. The mother is “the Universe,” the whole world of a baby, but only up to a certain point, after which the child begins to grow and make own decisions.
But while we grow physically, we often refuse grow emotionally, and cling t the same infantile perception of the Universe/ the Divine. We sincerely believe that all we need to do is to to start crying and someone will come and solve our every problem, satisfy our every need — all we need to do is to wait long enough and cry often enough.
This is where our habit of getting stuck in sadness often comes from. But do we want to spend our lives as eternal babies, eventually becoming disillusioned and annoyed with the world because no one showed up, because no one came and gave us our miracle?
