As Plain and Beautiful as Day

I’ve been going through a bout of emotional cleansing so writing this is what I would call my final step towards catharsis. I did my laundry, tidied up and scrubbed my dorm room, took a long shower. Or at least as much time as I could take in the dorm’s bathroom, ordered for food which will more or less be my first proper meal of the day and now I’m here with my phone and typing away.

I saw this week’s question from the #memoirmonday initiative by @ericvancewalton and it pulled me in like nothing else for some reason. This would be my first time answering a question from this initiative and I guess my participation was long overdue as I’ve found each and every topic reflective and impactful. This week’s question no less and I knew, without a doubt, that I had to give my answer.

Do you believe in miracles?

I come from a religious background. Very Christian, indeed. So you can guess what my answer would be. But I don’t think my answer has anything to do with my background but more to do with the things I’ve witnessed in my over two decades of existence. A lot of people don’t believe in miracles and maybe it’s because they make it sound too profound than it really is. And even though miracles are by nature, extraordinary, I’ve learned to be see the things that most people may overlook as miracles.

So there are big miracles and little miracles. All of which are amazing in their own way. The little miracles like the sun rising, and birds flying in that coordinated, magnificent way of theirs. And even as simple as a waterfall. And then there are the big miracles that are just too bare to ignore. To profound to be sidelined as a mere occurrence.

I remember in 2018 when my last sister began convulsing. I knew in that moment that she was going to go and I felt my heart leave me. So, I ran to my Dad’s room and under the window I cried. I cried and I prayed and I pleaded. I could already hear my parents shouting like they could feel her leaving us and so I poured out my heart. Sometimes it feels like a dream but I know what I saw. It’s like when you’re in a spotlight because I felt the sun shine more brilliantly than ever.

I started laughing even before I heard the jubilations, cause I knew that a miracle had just happened. And when I walked back into the sitting room where they were, my little sister was smiling at me and asking where I went. It was the most beautiful thing ever.

And then in 2021 when my sisters and I were on a motorbike. Then a car driving at the wrong lane hit us and I flew off the bike and into the road. It was a big expressway and I could feel myself already losing consciousness. But then I kept hearing a voice in my head. It was soft but then it sounded urgent. “Roll out of the way.” I heard it twice and with strength that I didn’t even know I had, I rolled feebly out of the way to the side of the road. And just then, before I lost consciousness, a lorry flew past.

Two miracles happened that day. The second one being that even though my younger sisters and I were on that vehicle, nothing happened to them and I was the only one who got hurt. It would have been a different story if it was any of them and no matter how it sounds, I'm grateful it was me instead.

Same year, it was my Mom and even as we heard her breathe her last, we held her hands and we prayed. I was visibly shaking with fear and tears but then after ten minutes of her being still, it was like air mysteriously entered her nostrils cause she had a huge intake of breath, coughed and opened her eyes.

A couple of days ago, a family friend who loved me so much she named her daughter after me passed away. My heart broke not just because she died but the manner in which she did. Her daughter, house assistant and driver who were in the same vehicle somehow found themselves flung to the side of the road without a scratch but then she wasn’t so fortunate and got crushed by a truck.

Even as I wept bitterly, I could still see the miracle that not everyone was swept away. It’s having a sour/bitter taste in my mouth but I’ve come to understand that miracles don’t have to be complete to be qualified as miracles. You lost your eye in that accident but you didn’t lose your life. That’s a miracle. My Dad was hustled and somewhat bullied out of a bus even though he got in first and because of that he had to take another one. And three hours later with the new bus he boarded, he saw the bus he would have boarded at the side of the road. There’d been an accident and no survivors.

No, I’m not happy about the lives that were lost because they were people too. But every day we walk on the road and live our lives, we don’t know what we’re constantly being saved from. And that, in itself, is a miracle.

So when I’m asked if I believe in miracles, my answer would be, what else am I to believe if not in miracles? I’ve seen and I’ve wholeheartedly lived miracles so many times in my life not to believe in its reality. Not everything’s got to be scientifically explained. Not everything’s got to be some product of nature or fate. Sometimes it could be a miracle. As plain but beautiful as day.

Writing this has liberated me in many ways and I’m grateful for this outlet.

Do you believe in miracles?

Jhymi🖤

_{All images are mine.}

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