Just For You

A few days ago, I was speaking with a co-worker about miracle consciousness. My full time job is as a social worker on an in-patient psychiatric unit. Every day, I meet with people whose souls have been wounded by abuse, illness and addictions. They sit in my office with its wall-to-wall affirmations, patient art-work, dream catchers, feathers, and rainbow colors and pour out their hearts. I remind them that the décor is just as much to keep my spirit aloft as it is to do so for them. This type of work can be equal parts discouragement and gratification. Eighty percent of what I do is case management which means I’m called on to be a real estate agent (finding people places to live, whether it is a shelter or boarding home), a travel agent (getting them to their destination), and a secretary (scheduling follow-up appointments with therapists and psychiatrists and arranging for them to get their medications when they leave.) The other twenty percent, which I really enjoy, is individual, couple and family counseling and the occasional group when I can sneak it in.

My office door is revolving (not literally) and in the three years I have worked there, many people have come through it multiple times. Generally, it is with head hung low, feeling like they have failed because they have needed to return. I remind them of the movie “Groundhogs Day” with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell in which he relives the same day over and over until he gets the lessons. I also tell them that my hope for them is that by the time they leave, they will begin at least, to remember who they are, since in the throes of the illness, they have forgotten. Call it spiritual amnesia, from which we all suffer at times.

So back to my conversation with Katie the day -time charge nurse. After rounds one morning, she lingered in my office as we talked about the miracles we have witnessed at work (that’s the gratification part I had mentioned) and other times in my life. One of those was something that had occurred in 1986 as my husband Michael, some friends and I were on our way to The Great Peace March in Washington, DC. On a highway near Ft. Meade, MD at 6 am, we saw a car cross over three lanes of traffic, the driver slumped over, and in horror which changed to awe, as we watched it do a 360, coming to land safely on the side of the road. It hadn’t touched any other cars or the guard- rail dividing the highway. A caravan from Ft. Meade pulled up behind us and together, we checked on the condition of the driver. Turns out that she was a reservist on her way to duty, eight months pregnant and she had fallen asleep at the wheel. One of her colleagues drove her car back to the base and the rest of us went on our bewildered and quite blessed way. To this day, I wonder what happened; what unseen hand had averted tragedy and what purpose this all served. Did this woman and her child have some Divine destiny that prevented them from dying? Were we all placed in each other’s paths for some reason? Katie mused that perhaps this was just for us, so that we could see that miracles are possible and could pass the story on to others. She cited an episode of Oprah in which a mother spoke of the miracles that had taken place surrounding the life of her now deceased daughter. Oprah commented that her telling the story had touched the lives of her audience and they in turn would pass on the story. Who knows how many lives would be changed as a result.

So, if a miracle (no matter how insignificant it may appear to you) occurs right in front of you, remember that it is just for you, so that you can give witness to its presence and provide encouragement to others who may doubt. As is stated at the end of the Sunday services at one of my spiritual communities, called Circle of Miracles, I wish you unrestricted miracles.

Rev. Edie Weinstein-Moser, LSW is an interfaith minister, writer, speaker, social worker, reiki master, clown and interviewer for New Visions Magazine. She can be reached via her website: www.liveinjoy.com