When Does Life Stop Being a Miracle?
For some, life is a miracle that begins at the very moment of conception.
For others, life is a miracle that begins at the moment of birth.
And I am sure that there are multiple variants of these two stances.
But my question is, when does life stop being a miracle?
I think that anyone who has seen a newborn baby has, at least for a moment, believed with their whole heart that life is a miracle.
When you see a new life that’s been brought to Earth, it’s a transcendental experience. You cannot help but think that this is something magical, something that needs to be treasured and celebrated.
But when, and how, do we forget this?
When do we go from looking at that baby and thinking "life is a miracle", to life being "get a secure job, pay your bills, pay off your mortgage, and don’t have trouble with the law"?
When do we go from life being a miracle to life being something completely unremarkable, something ordinary, mundane?
When does it become okay to just pass through this life?
When does the switch happen from parents and loved ones looking at a baby and saying that his tiny being is a miracle, a blessing, to telling that same being, now a bit grown up, to settle for being just like everyone else? Isn’t that the opposite of a miracle?
"Don’t dream too big. Don’t aim too high. You will be disappointed. Don’t romanticize this thing called life. There is already a path that’s been constructed for everyone. So why should you be any different? "
But it’s not just about parents, family, and loved ones forgetting about someone’s life being a miracle, and often out of the best intentions. The same has been done to them.
It’s also about you.
When do your dreams and passions cease to matter to you? Not to anyone else, but you.
When do those things that once lit a fire in your heart stop being important and worth pursuing?
If there has been nothing so far that has managed to light a fire inside your heart, when does it become okay to stop looking for that thing?
Sooner or later, one has to take responsibility for one’s own life being and remaining a miracle. One has to make an independent choice not to blend in with all the other miracles that have been wasted and extinguished.
If you thought I was going to give some answers this time, I’m not. I cannot.
All I can do is raise genuine questions. Hopefully, they will do for you the same thing they did for me - make you reconsider how you view your life, and, more importantly, how you live it.
Maybe once again, or for the first time ever, you take your life for what it is - a miracle.
Thank you for reading.
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