Whispers and Gongs

Do you believe in Angels?  What do you believe about Angels?  Feel free to leave a comment about what you believe...could be what you think the Bible says about them...could be what you were always taught or what your faith tradition was...maybe a personal experience?  I wrote one other time about possible Angel intervention.  If you want to read that post click here.


Well, I was thinking the other day about the night my husband and I first met.  I think about that night every now and again.  I was attending Walsh University.  I had been a part of the drama program there, sometimes in a play and sometimes doing things behind the scenes.  I was not going to take part in the play "West Side Story," but I really can't remember why at this point.  That play was a big undertaking for a small university, so they put out the word that they needed people to come in from outside the university to help fill the cast.  I went to see the play the evening I met my husband.  He was a student at Kent State University and was invited to come be a part of the play by some students he knew at Walsh.


I was still friends with all the Walsh students involved with the play and my best friend at the time would be going to the cast parties because her (now husband) boyfriend was in the play.  She wanted to set me up with another "outsider" or non-Walsh student that she had met at a previous cast party and asked me to go to the cast party that night that I went to see the play.  


When I walked in the door at the home where that party was taking place Dan was sitting there in the front room.  I noticed right away that he sat up and perked up when I walked in.  I was use to this reaction (I may have been pretty for a few years of my life).  My friend's boyfriend went to look for the guy she was going to introduce to me.  My friend and I sat in a chair across from Dan and began talking with him.  Needless to say we remained there talking for the remainder of the party.  The other guy never showed up.


There was a dance that night at Walsh too!  So after the party we left and I invited Dan to come to the dance with me.  We danced and he planted his first kiss on me that night on the dance floor!  Well, we ended up leaving the dance and walking and talking for most of the evening.  We had so many things in common.  Also, both of us had decided just that week to give up the notion of a significant other for a while and just concentrate on school and life in general.


When he needed to finally go home (he was living at home and commuting to school) he was giving me a hug goodbye and just as he was hugging me I heard a real live whisper in my ear.  When I say a "real live" whisper I mean it would be like someone standing right there next to you and whispering something in your ear.  Well, there was no one else there besides Dan and I, but there was a real life whisper.  The whisper said, "This is him.  You're going to marry him."


Did you ever ask your mom once you were interested in dating how you would know which person was the "right one"?  I remember asking my mom.  Her answer was a very good one.  She always said that the right one would be someone who was loyal, willing to stand by you even through illness...even through tough times.  Many people say they will in their marriage vows, but she had known too many people who "took off" when they found out their spouse had cancer, or when they couldn't stop arguing about money...or other various reasons.  She knew my dad was loyal.  She said I would know when I met someone with that quality. 


I could not have known that in one night of meeting him...not completely anyway.  So I'm telling you that the voice was not a thought in my head.  The voice was very real and very much either an Angel or a relative who was watching over me.  It was a sweet voice and it was female.  I'm ever so grateful to the voice because she knew long before I did that he was an amazing, loving, loyal, fabulous person and husband - and a spectacular dad to our children.  In my youth I could not have known.  I was so boy crazy for such a long time that I created a whirlwind of a life.  I am thankful for the voice which caused me to pause and take notice.  The voice let me know that he was "a keeper" - not just for a time, but forever.


Here's to voices.  I hope I don't hear them often because that would just be crazy...but I hope for you and for me that they will whisper to us in the most significant of times.  And if we're never lucky enough to hear another whisper, I pray that we sit up and listen when something really hits our hearts...God gives lots of different people the right words at just the right time...and gives us the ability to know when it applies to us. 


God bless you today and I hope you're hearing all you were meant to hear today.

Letting Go

I was on retreat this weekend with a group of teenagers at a beautiful camp.  My sister-in-law who is also a youth minister gave me the opportunity to act as a youth minister once again as I helped her and a planning team create and implement the retreat this weekend.  There were a few profound moments...as there always are on a retreat...but there is only one I want to share right now.

Part of Saturday's events included the High Ropes Course.  Now, most people have either heard of, seen, or experienced a high ropes course so I won't go into much detail here.  Basically they had to climb up a pole (there were prongs to climb) until they reached a tight-rope, log, or other obsticle about 20 feet high.  They had harnesses and were attached to a rope which a trained camp staffer held to help control the situation and keep them safe (just like when you climb rock walls).  Then they had to accomplish walking across a tight rope, up a diagonal log, or across a rope with planks, etc.  (When I say "they" I mean just about everyone except me as I have done a high ropes course before and don't care to again...I may write about my experience next or another time).

We later talked about what that experience was like for everyone.  Most people discovered that it was a little scarrier than they thought or how it looked.  Several were proud of themselves for accomplishing the task without much trouble.  Some were glad they at least tried.  Overall I think their sentiments were the same as mine after I had done it...when asked if we should do it again with a group next year they mostly voted "no" -- been there, done that, don't want to do it again.  One student made a statement that really stuck with me.  She said, "The hardest part was letting go of the pole once you reached the top."

Isn't that true of most everything in life?  I mean, the hardest part being the "letting go."  This student said, "Once I let go and just did it I was fine, but I was scared to let go."  It made me think of all those big changes that lie before us...for many these days it means facing unemployment and finding a new job; for some it's facing retirement; for others it's moving to a new town or new house; for some it means letting go of some emotional pain...perhaps a grudge...the letting go means forgiving someone...or even forgiving self for a mistake or a regret; maybe for some it means just letting go of what they THINK should be happening in their lives and just being o.k. with where they are and focusing on their blessings.  The "letting go" can be the hardest part.  And that's exactly where God is...in the letting go.  The longer and harder we hold on to that "pole" the harder the journey becomes, the more anguish we create...the pole becomes a crutch...the pole becomes NOT our safe place, but our obsticle.  God is waiting for us to LET GO and reach out...experience FAITH...embrace what looks impossible...TRUST that He is with us and it will all be fine.  GOD is our "spotter"   -  He's holding our life-line...He's going to make sure that all will turn out just the way it should.  Once we let go of our proverbial poles and just do what we need to do, we too will find that it all looked scarrier than it actually was.  Be aware of your blessings today and trust that you are exactly where should be...for today.  Let go of what you need to let go of and feel God's peace...today.

Reaching The Extra Inch...(final post in the trilogy)

I have one final post which falls in the theme of "reaching higher...going the extra mile...reaching out an extra inch..." 
I had wanted to write a bit about this before when I posted my blog "Miracles In The Midst Of Madness," after the death of my dad, but evidently at the time I just needed to write about his death (to read that post click here).  I knew a time would come for me to write more about the MIRACLE OF KINDESS and no time seems more appropriate than NOW - now, when the latest posts have been about reaching an inch higher. 

When my dad was born to eternal life, to me, here on earth, he still died.  Fully understanding and knowing that he is with God and born into eternity is only comforting later...months later...when the shock of him suddenly being gone starts to fade into acceptance.  So, when he suddenly died that early morning on September 20, 2009, my mom and I were in such a state of shock and disbelief that we didn't even know what to say or do.  We asked several times for a priest and it seemed like none could be found.  The chaplain for the hospital spent some time with us but had very few comforting words.  He seemed almost afraid of us.  I kept thinking he felt out of his comfort zone trying to help two very Catholic women...but at the same time I didn't get it because to me a Christian is a Christian no matter the religion and I just needed him to comfort us as Christians.  He kept saying he would try to get us a priest, and finally found one, but when the priest showed up he was from a local monastary and barely knew English.  He had even less words of comfort and did not perform the entire last rights sacrament to the disappointment of my mom.  

I paced and paced and paced the floor in the room where my dad lay dead and my mom sat and held his hand.  I could not sit because I did not want to feel anything.  If I kept pacing I could avoid feeling I thought.  I kept sipping water they had brought us because I needed to keep swallowing. We were in that room for hours because of a miscommunication.  We thought we were waiting for the County Coroner to release his body or for a doctor to sign it off (won't go into details here except that wih his death being sudden sometimes the coroner has to do an autopsy and we preferred that not happening so we were waiting to see if this was ok).  Meanwhile, since they were just up visiting me we had to decide whether we would hold the funeral here where I live or go back to Marion where they were getting ready to move away from.  After about 2 hours in the room I went out to the front desk and asked the nurse if the coroner had called or if a doctor had signed off his body.  She said that they had a long time ago and they were just waiting for us to decide which funeral home would be taking care of the arrangements. 

I had to set up that whole scenerio for you so that you could understand JUST HOW IMPACTFUL these GIFTS, these MIRACLES of kindness were to us.  When speaking about reaching that extra inch I totally think of these people and how much they did for us.

First of all, once we knew we had to call a funeral home, having just moved here I had no idea which one to call.  So I called my sister-in-law, Michelle.  She named two places that she thought would be really good.  THEN, she proceeded to tell me that she would go to my house to watch the kids so that my husband could come and be with us.  This was a Sunday morning and I know she had to get her own family ready for church and I know also that since she's a youth minister that she had a lot of things to do that day.  But everything was set aside that day to come to our aid. I'm eternally grateful to her for going the extra mile, coming to our house with bags full of groceries and snacks for the kids, watching the kids for probably a couple of hours so that my husband could be with us.

Once we got home immediately my mother and father-in-law came over to be with us.  My mother-in-law was still recovering from a colon surgery - but they came!  That was amazing to me...especially since they had a farm to run and it was open to the public that day on top of everything else.  Not only that, they drove all the way to Barberton to pick up buckets of our favorite chicken, then drove all the way back.  This had to be taxing on them knowing she was still recovering from surgery and that the farm was open for business that day.  They reached higher, and went the extra mile and we were so grateful.

My Aunt Mary and my cousin Melissa took time to cook meals and bring them to us...again, it was a long drive for them...Aunt Mary isn't as agile as she once was and Melissa has 4 kids of her own...reaching the extra inch.

Get this one: my sister-in-law's (Traci) step mother (got it?), Sharon, made a TON of food...not really even related...but she spent a day cooking for us...reaching the extra inch.

My friend, Kris, when she called offerred to be here for us however we needed.  She suggested that she could stay with the kids during the funeral.  That never crossed my mind - I thought they would just come.  But once she got here and the more we talked about it it seemed like a good idea for them to come later for the meal.  My oldest came along, but Kris stayed with the kids and brought them to the meal later.  She missed work that day for a non-relative so I know she had to take a vacation day.  Her birthday would be 2 days later (incidently so was Michelle's my sister-in-law).  Kris and Michelle spent 2 days before their birthdays being available for us...reaching the extra inch.

My sister's friend, Mary, who that week had one of her children in surgery(for a broken limb I think?), drove all the way from Buffalo to be here for my sister and our family...reaching the extra inch.

My Aunt Vi (my dad's sister), Uncle Bob (her husband), and several cousins on my dad's side drove over 3 hours to be at the funeral home by 9:00 am that morning.  Uncle Bob has a compromised immune system and was not able to come in to anything - he sat in the car the whole day - and Aunt Vi was torn between caring for him and being present for family - I would say they went several extra inches.

Neighbors and my husband's co-workers and people we barely knew from church since we just moved here...they all came to the funeral home.  George who was our realator and who we came to be friends with while looking for a house here came to the funeral...they were all reaching that extra inch.

The cards, the gifts, the phone calls, the money for masses, the money for my dad's causes...all overwhelming...all grately appreciated...the exta inch.

I stated in my post "Miracles in the Midst of Madness" that I never liked helping others go through their pain.  I know this is because I never really knew WHAT to do.  This is because nothing like this had ever happened in my life - I had nothing to draw from.  If any good can come to me now from all of this it is that I might have an idea of what to do to help someone else.  May we all learn from the examples of kindness that other people give us.  I can not put into words the value of these miracles of KINDNESS...there are no words of appreciation that can ever be enough.  But God knows how thankful we are.  I can only hope to pay it forward to the next person in need.

I'm amazed at the generosity of people - I see how much people are willing to give and help in times of crisis.  The Tsunami victims, Hurricane Katrina victims, the earthquake in Haiti, and now the earthquake in Chile...God gave us all these amazing abilities and capacities to help.  Let us all think of what "the extra inch" is for us...and go there...and do it.