Guardian Angel?

     I consider this to be too sacred to post on facebook but want to share with those more intimately encircled.

     I have been blessed with many gifts. I have one gift that relates to this blog. I have sensed and seen spirits. Usually they are female.  I know who some of them are, but others are not identified.

     Lately I have "caught" one out of the corner of my eye, and it disappears quickly.  One evening when Jay and I were returning home to our apartment, we stepped off the elevator and approached our door. Jay was fumbling with the lock when I looked up and saw a spirit someone turn and leave.  Because of my previous experiences, I didn't really react. It was just "another spirit."

     I have been quite ill with a cold this past week and hadn't left the apartment since last Sunday. Yesterday was Thursday. I have four piano students who are getting ready for a recital. I needed to be there for their lessons. The Ward choir scheduled a practice immediately after piano lessons. This means I was gone for a little over three hours. I was tired, considering I had just spent the past six days in bed.  Returning home, I stepped out of the elevator, key in hand, to enter our apartment.  There are about 10 steps from the elevator to our door, and when I had taken a little more than half of those steps, I looked up and again saw the same spirit who had been there earlier. I sensed that she was with me to see me safely home. It was very comforting. I don't know who she is. She could be someone who has a personal interest in me, but could be the one assigned to watch over us while we are serving a mission.

     The one thing I know for certain from this experience, is that, I am not alone. I have protection at all times. I have a guard for even such simple things as leaving the apartment, crossing the street to Temple Square, and returning home to the presence of a Priesthood bearer.  Is this perhaps one way how I share the priesthood? Is this evidence of the answer to all your prayers for our safety? Yes, I believe so.

Tender Mercy and the Loose Screw

    Eyeglasses are as much a part of me as the eyes they assist.  Only recently have I been able to remove them and be satisfied with the vision I have, thanks to cataract surgery and a little correction within. 

     The more frequent removal may have something to do with this story, for perhaps the more constant change in pressure on the joints of the glasses caused a reaction. I have never had much problem with my glasses over my life, other than the breaking of older frames, or their slipping down my nose. I was not aware of things that could go wrong.   It was liberating to find joints on frames that were flexible, yet would hug my face firmly. That is  my priority when shopping for frames.

     Recently, over the past six months, I have thought these temple pieces were getting a little loose, but nothing seemed to be a problem.  One day as we were ready to leave the apartment, my lens fell out onto the table.  I was able to snap it back in, and with the "snap" I thought everything was purely accident.  A month ago it fell out again, and I couldn't make it stay in. There was no "snap".  Jay put it in and said, "Be careful." Last week I went to get my glasses and found them on the table with the lens lying beside the frame.  After trying half a dozen times unsuccessfully to correct the problem, I sat down to closely inspect them. I discovered that the screw that connects the lower part of the frame to the upper part, hence securing the lens, had come apart.  I quickly found a screw driver small enough, tightened all the loose screwS, and realized my tender mercy. 

     The tender mercy of all this, is that the screw was still there, that the final breaking point was safely in our apartment, on the table.  In all the walking and bus travel, and touring we had done in those six months, all the removing and putting on occasions, and the manipulations to replace the lens, that screw was STILL THERE!  Even in the apartment, it happened while LYING ON THE TABLE! Anywhere else but there would have been bad news.

"Paid by the Animal" Game

     One week our family drove to Yellowstone Park. My dad drove, my mother read the map and handed us sandwiches and drinks. My brother Jim sat on one side of the back seat and I sat on the other side.  Jim liked to tease me, especially in ways that my parents couldn't see.  I would squeal and object, and when my parents had heard enough, my dad would pick the hairbrush that always seemed to be in the front seat, reach over the seat and try to make us stop making noise (me, and not my fault). They never told Jim to stop teasing, only told me to stop making noise.  Well, Jim was bored and he was about 14 or 15 years old. I was somewhere around nine.   The second day was very cloudy and a little rainy. We were driving some more, and Jim was getting ready to start teasing. My mother sensed this and made up a new game. She said, " Look out the window for wild animals. I will give you five cents for one kind, 10 cents for another kind, and 25 cents for even another.  We had not seen one single wild animal up to that point. Even on earlier trips to The Park, we hadn't seen more than a few bears, an elk or two, and perhaps a bison. I think she was planning on that and could afford that much change.  Soon, we came around a bend in the road and spied a whole herd of elk. We couldn't even count them all. There must have been a hundred of them. It wasn't too long before we drove by a herd of bison. Boy, Jim and I were really excited by now!  My parents weren't so excited for some reason.  We saw five or six bear, and a few eagles.  We never did collect our earnings, but the experience created a great memory.  I have never again seen the same population of wild animals in a single day in The Park