One Fine Day

I have books piled all over the house and a bad habit of buying books, starting to read them, never finishing one before starting another. When I went to the dentist last month, I knew I'd be sitting in my car waiting to be called in, so I grabbed a book off a pile titled "Soul Sensing", which I thought was one of those "your soul plan" type books, but once I was in the parking lot waiting, I picked up the book only to read the subtitle which is "How to Communicate with Your Dead Loved Ones." Oh.

I opened the book to where I had bookmarked it and began reading. The author was talking about how our loved ones send signs from the other side, but we often don't recognize them. Or believe it's them. She had an "exercise" in which said you can call on your dead loved ones and ask for a sign. She warned when you do this, use the person's name, as you don't want invite some other spirit into this realm.

I've been feeling quite lonely and decided to try this out. So one day, I was getting ready to go for a swim and I asked Bob, by name, to please give me a sign so that I would know he's still with me.

As I stepped into the pool, the first thing I saw was a dead frog. This isn't unusual. I often get these little brown frogs in my pool which I try to scoop up and let them go in the garden. But this one was quite dead, floating upside down, legs spread out. Poor thing. I didn't really want to swim with a dead frog, so I scooped it out and the minute I pulled his lifeless body out of the water, he flipped over and looked me square in the eye. He was alive! Then he jumped off my hand, and began hopping the wrong direction, toward the house and I said, "Hey, you're going the wrong way!" And believe me, I'm not lying, but that frog turned around, came back to me and jumped into my hand. I carried him to the garden and he hopped off onto a leaf. Now that was pretty strange, but a "sign"?

I went ahead with my swim and at one point, as I came up from a deep underwater dive, I heard all the wind chimes on the deck chiming. All of them. Now it takes a strong wind to get them all going at once as some are pretty heavy and others, far back. I stopped, listened and watched all the chimes swaying, but I felt no breeze at all. Then I noticed there was no wind in the tree branches above me. And the chimes on garage were not moving. Then the chimes suddenly stopped. Weird. But was that a "sign"?

After my swim, I decided to linger on the edge of the pool and do some deep breathing meditation, asking Bob again for a sign. I closed my eyes and counted my breaths for a while. When I opened my eyes, there was a strange tiny sea shell swirling by my feet, about the size of a nail head. Really strange. In fact, until I picked it up I thought it was a bug, looked like a small eyeball (white round thing with a dark round center) but as I examined it I realized it was a snail shell. I've had many frogs and one snake (aack!) but never a snail in my pool. As I was examining it, trying to figure out if it was a snail or just an empty shell, two more shells began swirling around my feet. So I scooped those up, examined them, one looked like there might be a creature inside it, so I carried the three shells and laid them in the garden. Was this a sign?

When I went to put my cover-up on, something landed on my bare shoulder. I looked down and saw a ladybug, which I tried to flick gently off with my finger. The ladybug wouldn't move. I tried again and it landed on my finger. So I took that, too, to the garden where it flew onto the leaf that the frog hand leapt on (but by now disappeared.) Was the ladybug a sign?

Once in the house, I took my after swim shower and when I got out of the shower, dressed, the radio started playing "our song". You know the one by Modern English: "I'll Stop The World and Melt with You", it's the one I have the video of Bob & me dancing to. Now, that was a sign.

I tell you, I danced down the hallway, twirling to that song, nearly twirled myself into the wall. Because, after all, Bob certainly followed through with enough signs to assure me that he still visits me. 

Later that night, I checked my e-mail to find a "Order Confirmation" from e-bay and thought, what? I didn't order anything on e-bay. Checked my e-bay account and sure enough there was an order for the original 1912 edition of The Sinking of the Titanic, a book I used to own and sold at our antique shop and regretted it. I didn't remember buying this, but e-bay says I did and I checked the invoice and it was ordered at 5:00 p.m. an odd time, as I'm usually walking the dog and getting supper ready, not buying things on line. Plus I vowed to keep expenses down and not buy anything unnecessary this month because of all the house repairs I've been dealing with.... Was that you, Bob? Or am I having black-outs? Thank goodness the book was only $38.00.

That night, I woke up around midnight to the sound of the click clack of Kona walking down the hallway, you know the noise a dog makes, toe nails on hardwood floors. I sat up wondering why Kona was up and wandering around, but was surprised to see Kona sound asleep next to me. The sound of the paws of the "dog" in the hallway disappeared into the dining room and stopped. Perhaps a little visit from Boomer? Or --?

OK, call me crazy. But I am smiling. Just saying....