My daughter frequently encourages me with the phrase, “Don’t give up before the miracle happens.” She first received this piece of advice from her allergy doctor. This is the back story on how this affirmation grew within me from cliché to gospel.
Years ago, I had a pack-a-day cigarette habit. By the age of 27, I had kicked it. Three years ago, while going through a stressful life event, I decided ‘what the heck’ and tried to start back. At that time, my 35-year-old daughter smoked and when I would stop by to pick up or drop off the grand-kids, we would grab a cigarette and bond over the conspiracy of smoking together. It was fun; but not easy. Almost always, after one of our clandestine smoking sessions, my chest would hurt for a day.
I guess because of some sort of guilt, or maybe her husband’s nagging, my daughter decided to quit. I lost my pusher and survived the year of hell sans cigarettes.
Like my mother, my daughter, Meghan, suffers from horrible allergies. She’s allergic to everything inside and outside of the house. Upon quitting cigarettes, her sense of smell greatly improved and with that came an onslaught of allergy attacks like never before. She became hyper-sensitive to practically everyone and everyplace. She was imprisoned in her home.
She read online how this phenomenon is not uncommon in the first year of abstinence. Like me, she tried to go back to smoking but couldn’t. So, she waited.
It has now been almost 3 years since she quit. A year ago, she began allergy shots with little relief thus far. Her doctor promises a good outcome and inspires her by saying, “Don’t give up before the miracle happens.”
I love that phrase so, I googled it. I found an inspirational book with the same phrase, written by none other than Fannie Flagg (really!). I also discovered it was a slogan for Alcoholics Anonymous.
Too many of us give up before the miracle happens. It took Flag and Banner nine years to become solvent, Friends of Dreamland nine years to get a construction grant, and Brave Magazine five years to be taken seriously. My radio show Up In Your Business is coming up on three years. It has not been a perfect ascent; nothing new ever is. But I am taking the advice of my daughter, her allergy doctor, and Fannie Flagg; “Don’t give up before the miracle happens!”
