I just finished an exercise on “How to Create Miracles in Your Life.” I wrote up the following. It’s out of context so it may not make sense to everyone, but you may get the gist of it. I found it important.

I had my biggest problems with this exercise last time. In the end I figured out the exercise with my interpretation.

At first my biggest problem was with the term miracle, which to me inextricably implied supernatural. I haven’t found the supernatural helpful.

More recently I realized a conflict with “Good thing bad thing.” Nothing inherently wrong with conflict, but if the train coming just in time was so miraculous, did that imply something un-miraculous about the train not coming on time? If we’re going to call things miracles, why couldn’t the train coming late be just as miraculous?

Calling something a miracle seemed marginally better than calling it a coincidence, but from another perspective — the perspective that’s helped me so much elsewhere — labeling things at all took me backward. Labeling them good or bad took me farther backward. The terms miracle or coincidence seemed synonymous with good or bad.

I came up with the following.

If you want something to come out a certain way and it does, you feel great. If it doesn’t, most people feel not so great. “Good thing bad thing” keeps you from feeling bad for realizing the label didn’t change what happened and you never know how something will turn out later. How you react and the feelings you feel are what matters. You have the power to interpret things to create the feelings you want.

Your emotional reaction determines how you feel. However you label things or not, feeling good feels good. Feeling bad feels bad. If calling something a miracle makes you feel good, great. Call it a miracle. If you can feel great without the label, that’s great too. If you miss a train, you can feel good too if you see you can use that occurrence to improve your life even without calling it a miracle.

I see this exercise complementing and augmenting “Good thing bad thing.” “Good thing bad thing” removes the mess of labeling things and makes you resilient to feeling bad. This exercise takes you from feeling neutral to feeling great. Or from feeling great to feeling yet greater. Personally I don’t like the supernatural element and the labels, but that’s my style. And if you call everything a miracle — what else would you call everything if you’re living the best life you can? — what do you gain from the label?

Ultimately the emotions you create matter. The difference between Eleanor and Joan wasn’t the term miracle or coincidence. It was their emotional reaction. If you can use anything and everything to create joy, happiness, and whatever other rewarding emotion you want, I think you’ve achieved the point of the exercise.

Classmates, did I miss anything else from the exercise? I’d love to learn more from it.

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