MIRACLE--A DEFINITION
=====================
From the dictionary.com
1. A noun, an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
2. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
3. a wonder; marvel.
4. a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality: a miracle of modern acoustics.
5. miracle play.
Origin: 1125–75; ME miracle, miracul (< OF miracle) < L mīrāculum, equiv. to mīrā(rī) to wonder at + -culum
Word Origin & History
miracle, noun,
1137, from O.Fr. miracle, from L. miraculum "object of wonder"
First record of miraculous is from 1502.
=======================================
IMO, more and more of what we used to call the "supernatural" is being revealed, today, as the natural. Many things we take for granted today were thought of by our ancestors--and not that long ago--as supernatural.
I like to think of the "supernatural", if there is such a thing, simply as the unknown waiting to be made known. Perhaps some things are unknowable, to me. If I really come to accept that such and such is unknowable to me, I will leave it others to explore. For me it would just be stressful and a waste of time.
Paraphrasing the great SERENITY PRAYER, composed by the theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (He taught at Union Theological Seminary, New York) and used by all those who attend AA programs, I offer the following meta-prayer:
I affirm that it is possible for anyone, including me, to have the serenity and peace of mind to accept life's limitations; that there many things, which may be of value to me and others, that I cannot know and do not need to know. I affirm that it is possible for any one to have the courage to make the effort to know, and to make use of, all good knowledge that is helpful and available to each of us, as needed.
Meanwhile, I trust and affirm that moment by moment it is possible for any of us to be truly humane, when we so will it, and be wise enough to know the difference between good and evil. It is possible for anyone to be hopeful and lovingly affirm the good, physically, mentally and spiritually, for self and all that is.
=====================================
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhrhttp://www.cptryon.org/prayer/special/serenity.html 
