My Christmas Miracle

Christmas; the day when Christians worldwide celebrate the birth of Christ. This tradition is so ingrained in western culture, and spread by missionaries across the globe, that a great many who celebrate this day do it in the spirit of tradition rather than faith and belief. It matters little. It is a day when we celebrate joy, peace, loving and giving. The only tragedy is that we take but this one day to focus on these virtues, things we could focus on a great deal more.

Christmas is the season of miracles, so the Christian community says. That may be, although I did not get my Christmas wish, my Christmas miracle, a cure for ALS. Then again, some would contend that my personal miracle is being here. A great many pALS have left us this year, the miracle of a cure coming to late for them, as it likely will for me. It's the strangeness of this illness, that for some it comes quickly while for others it takes many years to do its work. So my miracle, should I choose to claim is, is the miracle of life, of still being here.

There is the miracle of science and technology, the many miracles of science and technology, borne out of the diligence and work of doctors, researchers, chemists, metallurgists, engineers and so many others. These men and women, in the course of their labours both paid and unpaid, mean I get things like medications to keep my heart and lungs healthy, free from blood clots or arterial plaque or the dreaded heart attack. They bring me the miracles of a modern wheelchair, a shower that works for someone as handicapped as I, hand controls for my truck, lift systems to move my dead bulk around.

I gain greatly from the miracles of a modern health care state. Those who live impoverished lives in third world nations would certainly think it so, that someone I don't know, someone who I don't pay, comes in to help me, to care for me, at least three times a week, and more as I need it. This certainly does not replace the care and love of family; instead it gives them an opportunity to be with me without having to worry about me. There is a miracle in this national generosity

Others might contend that Katherine is my miracle; they might be right. She has come into my life when I most needed her, putting aside her own life to make mine better. In her there is the miracle of love. As the line goes in "Miracle of Miracles", the tailor's song from the musical Fiddler On The Roof, "But of all God's miracles large and small,, The most miraculous one of all, Is the one I thought could never be:  God has given you to me."

Love in my life, caring and giving; this is my miracle. Everything else is just circumstance.