The Last Day of 2016

Today is the last day of 2016; it is 3:51 am on a Saturday morning yet I am still up, not because I partied last night, but what else is new.  Everyone has something that plagues him or her, for me my major plagues are insomnia and migraines. Sitting up on my bed with a big smile on my face, I am joyful, for I know how far I have come, especially with my plagues.  Last night, my lil guy wanted to stay up and watch YouTube videos, but I convinced him to watch a movie with mommy instead.  After scrolling and scrolling down the list of movies available on our fire stick.  We settled for  ‘Miracles from heaven’.  “We have wanted to see that one for a while”, the lil guy proclaimed when I suggested it and we snuggled in to watch.  Not too long after the movie started, he fell asleep as I expected he would.  It was past midnight after all.  I suggested we watch a movie because I knew he would fall asleep cuddling with mommy on the couch. 

As the movie progressed, I was glad he was sleeping because my emotions got the best of me as I cried through the pain and joy of the Beam family pains and subsequent miracle, I saw in my mind’s eye the months I spent in bed in my parent’s home with unending pain in my head.  Even as the tears poured out, a smile spread across my face as I promised myself afresh to live everyday like a miracle.  As I write now, I feel a subtle headache that will probably pass once I get over my efforts at loosing weight and getting back in my old clothes and give myself permission to head to the kitchen to eat the cold cereal my body is craving right now. 

At the time, I was watching the movie, I marveled that my head was completely pain free.  To look back and see a time when I prayed to have even a few minutes of no pain in my head is to smile, even through the increasing pain of this current migraine episode, as I live a miracle of knowing that this pain will go away.  Tonight, I couldn’t help counting myself as one of the people on this earth who have been fortunate enough to receive miracles from heaven.  In 2016, I have had many reasons to smile, my children, my parents, my siblings, my friends, my work, my home, even my problems many a time engendered the contraction of smiling muscles.   In the middle of seething about getting a traffic ticket, I smiled because my auto insurance, which, went up due to a crash I had last year, was already coming back down.  My smile amplified when I remembered how that encounter with an 18-wheeler only resulted in minor damages to the car and increased auto insurance.  I even got a miraculous release from the big ticket I got for being responsible for the accident.

Tonight just like most nights these days, I knelt down and I prayed for everyone I know that needs miracles from heaven.  I prayed for myself too because I could use a miracle or two from our good God, but my smile is immense today, and I promise to keep a smile on my face even more in 2017, because I truly believe that my life is a beautiful miracle already.

Thank you God for 2016 and all the years, I have lived through on this earth.  Bless my 2017 and fill it with every miracle that I need to keep this smile on my face.

Happy New Year Family and Friends!  Cheers J.

Copyright Judith Adaobiihuoma Udeke