Every person has the right to an ordinary miracle. In the “constitution of human life,” this article, perhaps, could be the first - if such a constitution were customarily written at birth for each of us. “If your car gets a tire on the road, will you stand on the side of the road and pray to God create a miracle: come down from heaven and change a tire for you? You can handle it yourself, with God’s help, right? Or wave your hand and ask someone who knows how to do it to help. And continue on your way. And in situations with other life difficulties, do we always do the same?” From a recent sermon by one wise priest If such a constitution could be put into the heart of a person at his birth, much would change greatly around him. If only so many people weren’t standing on the sidelines of their own lives. Well, our lives are not equipped with keys for all occasions from the very beginning. And so we try to unscrew with our fingers, for example, the rusty nuts of an unsuccessful family fate: we push, we puff, we break our nails. We get wet in the cold rain, we breathe heavily, we lose hope. And we look up in confusion. And from above, nothing falls except rain. Because God is not a tire changer. He doesn't perform ordinary miracles. Water into wine at a celebration is welcome. Raising the dead is easy! And to change a tire - excuse me, we have to do it ourselves. What do we do when situations happen to us from which we cannot get out? First of all, we consult with friends and seek their support. What does their support give us? The opportunity to stand longer on the sidelines without changing anything in your situation for the better. Support cannot give anything more. That’s why they call her support. Those friends whose lives were going well from the very beginning never stood so confused. And therefore, they cannot advise anything useful in your situation, except speculatively - they don’t have that kind of experience, right? There is another one, but this one is not. Those loved ones who have something broken are also unable to help. If they knew how to fix it, they would have repaired everything they needed in their lives long ago. And they left forever to where it is warm, dry and happy. Where else do we get examples of behavior in difficult life situations? Often - from bright fashion magazines, Internet sites and social networks, full of ridiculous headlines like “15 laws of successful love.” It is foolish to assume that the great mystery of love can be bewitched with even a thousand spells. But the simplicity of muttering fifteen times beckons irresistibly, and the knots of personal life are tightened in many veins even tighter and more painfully. We take a significant part of our ideas about everyday life from literature. But how many stories about the path to happiness does classical literature contain? You won’t remember anything right off the bat. Because when literature is born as art, it is born from the highest spiritual tragedy experienced by the artist. That is, she is talking about something completely different. The artist, interestingly, at this moment is not expressing himself at all, as is customary to say now. The artist’s hand is driven not by reason, not by life experience, not by fantasy, not by intuition, not by the desire to earn money and not by a passion for self-expression. Through him, in these minutes and days, God speaks to the world, again and again enriching his inexhaustible theme of the beautiful Creation. And when the experience of this process frees the artist from his presence, the artist no longer writes books and poems. When he is happy, he has other activities - much more exciting. In the next act of creation, he will be immersed in a new high tragedy of the spirit, and the previous one will no longer be interesting to him. The artist will talk to God about something else. That’s why the heroes who attract us in real books are almost always tragic in one way or another. This is correct from an artistic point of view. But from the point of view of gaining life experience, they are no good. God and the artist do not write books so that we can draw everyday experience from them, like borscht from a saucepan. Humanity in our modern “developed”Civilizations have become very accustomed to the fact that the soul is only a figurative expression. And I completely forgot how to keep it in mind - because how can there be anything vitally important in an empty word, in a beautiful metaphor? Even among priests there are quite nice people whose concern for human souls comes down to quoting wise books for all occasions. They somehow very cleverly proved to us from all sides that success and joy will be born outside the human soul. What is it - from yachts with villas. Or lives in the chair of a high boss. Or in a bank account. Or, at best, when there are a lot of children. And we look at the signs of what is called success - at flashy yachts, massive chairs, round bills. For children, at best. To the neighbor's wife, after all. We look at all this and try to do something with our brain convolutions, hands and other parts of the body, so that we too have all this and bring us happiness. We fuss around outside ourselves in the hope that this will make everything inside us work out and become good. Like that guy from the joke who was looking for a lost wallet under a lamppost. Not because I lost it there - but because it’s easier to see under the lantern. Signs of happiness and success are just signs. When we look at them and want them, we confuse causes and effects. Many children do not bring happiness to a family. But happiness in love can bring many children. And happiness in real creativity can lead a person to a mansion, if a mansion is actually needed for this happiness in creativity. While trying to be successful and happy, you can also arrange yourself to steal a lot and beautifully. However, not everyone can do this - it’s just purely human. And those who can do not find happiness in this. On the faces of many oligarchs do we see a real reflection of happiness, not counting the routine trained smiles? Well, perhaps only in the movies... But in life, these people are very concerned about current affairs, health... And other factors - lying on the other side of the door leading to the world of real, deep, sincere and honest joy of human life. A wonderful German psychologist and the philosopher Erich Fromm wrote the book “To Have or to Be” in the 70s of the last century. It’s not about the idea that if you have a lot, you’re necessarily unhappy. And it’s not about the fact that if you’re homeless, then you’re certainly incredibly happy. No, this great book is about something else. That true happiness cannot be had - it can only be experienced. That this most important experience in life comes not from the outside, but from the inside. The way a child is born and begins to change the world around him. Who will say that the birth of a child is not a miracle? Just now this person, as a separate life, a separate soul in an independent body, did not exist on Earth, and suddenly - once! And it already exists. Just yesterday the tests were not very good, and it was difficult to walk. And it was unknown how everything would turn out. Just ten minutes ago it was both painful and scary. There was blood, and tears, and heartbreaking screams. But now everything is different. Everything happened. Everything worked out fine. And the child turned out to be resilient, and the doctor turned out to be experienced, and the mother herself managed. And the mother looks at the child happily - not because she now has a child. But because she is simply happy with love bubbling from her heart. Who will say that the birth of a child is not creativity? This is real creativity - conceived by two in love and born in pain. With a wave of cleansing happiness at the end. Any person, even a little believer, can easily discern the Third in this story. Because here, as in any real creativity, it could not have happened without God. He breathed new life into the soul, and it was a great miracle. And my mother gave birth herself. It was a miracle - an ordinary one. And both miracles are real. Everyone has the right to the miracle that is due to them. For God it’s God’s, and for us it’s for ours, human. We will not perform his great miracles for God the Creator, and he will not create our ordinary, personal miracle for each of us. We are responsible for our own happiness. The three co-authors who gave us life gave us everything for this happy answer.