Is endurance🛡 the miracle we need now?

It is not loud or dramatic. It is the quiet strength that appears when challenges test our limits—the inner voice that whispers "keep going" when the world feels heavy. 

Endurance is the miraculous unwavering flame that burns within us, illuminating our path through darkness and uncertainty.

Let’s pause on this first night of Hanukkah to honor the possibility of miracles. The story reminds us that life often demands one (endurance) while we long for the other (miracles).

We humans have always been aware of this tension. Across cultures and generations, hard-earned truths have been observed, recorded, and passed down for our benefit. 

These rituals of care—of the body, of skin, of spirit—evolved not as indulgences, but as acts of survival. Rituals became a way to sustain health, dignity, and hope when conditions were harsh and outcomes uncertain. They were small lights, tended to daily.

Our fascination with miracles endures—and that’s good for our souls. These lives we live are not merely a matter of atoms and molecules. Their twists and turns remain mysterious.  

The idea of miracles keeps us open to wonder, to meaning, and to the possibility that something more is at work—something that can meet us when our own strength runs thin.

Long ago, our ancestors understood this. They noticed what sustained them, what healed them, what carried them forward—and they passed those ingredients, stories and rituals on. Not as guarantees, but as companions to endurance.

As the first candle is lit this evening, may we remember to pause in the coming days. To nurture and take care. To tend the small flames within ourselves and for one another. And to allow space for both endurance and miracles to do their quiet work.