How to Find Miracles in the Midst of Difficult times
Life doesn't arrive in a single wave. It crashes against us from every direction — sometimes carrying us forward in joy, and sometimes knocking every last breath from our lungs. The question isn't whether hard times will come. They will. The real question is: how do we respond when they do?
This past year has been one of the most challenging of my life. My beloved Yorkie, Max, became critically ill following surgery. For four months, our family poured everything into nursing him back to health — doctors, medications, blood transfusions, and sleepless nights riding waves of crisis. Today, Max is still with us, but our life has been permanently changed. He has three legs, his health is fragile, and the carefree rhythm we once knew is gone.
Then came a call no child ever wants to receive. My mother — who had already fought and survived breast cancer two years ago — was diagnosed with cancer tumors in her brain and lungs. Our family is back in the fight, one day at a time.
And somewhere in the middle of all of that, a company I had given a decade of my life to let me go. No warning. No conversation. Just … gone.
Three seismic events. Simultaneously. And yet — I found miracles in all of them.
1. The Universe Is Working For You — Even When It Doesn’t Feel Like It
I have come to believe, deeply and without reservation, that things happen for a reason. Not because pain is deserved, but because growth is being orchestrated. When everything in my professional life was stripped away, I could have spent months drowning in anger. Instead, I made a choice: I decided to see the gift.
The gift was time. Time with Max. Time with my mother. Time to breathe, recalibrate, and reimagine. The universe wasn't punishing me — it was redirecting me toward something better than I had the vision to choose for myself.
Your Action Items:
When something painful happens, ask yourself: “What might this be making space for?”
Journal for five minutes each morning about one way your circumstances may be serving your growth.
Practice releasing the need to control outcomes. Write down one thing you are willing to trust to the universe this week.
2. Gratitude Is the Gateway to Liberation
When my mother’s diagnosis hit, it cracked me wide open. And in that cracked-open place, something unexpected happened — I started noticing everything. The way she laughs. The way she still calls me by my childhood nickname. The way ordinary Tuesday afternoons have become something I treasure like gold.
Gratitude doesn’t mean pretending things aren’t hard. It means deliberately anchoring your attention to what is still right, still beautiful, still yours. It is the practice that keeps despair from winning.
Your Action Items:
Start a daily gratitude practice: name three specific things — not generic ones — that you are grateful for right now.
Tell someone you love exactly why you love them today. Don’t wait.
Do a “Life Audit”: list the top five priorities in your life and honestly assess whether your daily choices reflect them.
3. Forgiveness Is Not for Them — It’s for You
I will be honest with you: after being let go from a company I had poured a decade of myself into, I felt the pull of bitterness. I could have let resentment take root. I could have rehearsed my grievances on a loop. I could have let anger become my identity.
But I have learned this: carrying resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was okay. It means you are choosing not to let it live rent-free in your mind any longer. It means you are reclaiming your energy for the life you are building — not the wounds you are reliving.
The miracle on the other side of forgiveness? Lightness. Clarity. Forward motion.
Your Action Items:
Identify one person or situation you’re still carrying resentment toward. Write a letter you will never send — pour it all out, then release it.
Practice the reframe: instead of “they did this to me,” try “this happened, and here is what I choose to do with it.”
Choose one small act of self-compassion today. You deserve forgiveness too — for the ways you’ve been too hard on yourself.
The Miracle Is Already Here
Here is what I know to be true after everything this past year has taught me: miracles don’t always look like the end of pain. Sometimes they look like the person who shows up at exactly the right moment. Sometimes they look like a dog with three legs wagging his tail like nothing in the world could stop him. Sometimes they look like a mother who, despite everything, still makes you laugh.
And sometimes the miracle is simply this: you are still here. Still standing. Still becoming.
You are Stronger Than Before.
