Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 3:50am

Little Miracles

No, I don’t mean “kids.” They’re really big miracles in little packages. I also don’t mean things where small happenstances have big side-effects– like the time something silly I can’t remember happened, and delayed my car enough that we missed being T-boned or caught in the huge pileup with it from a run-away car. Barely.

I mean things where you are just not having a good time of it, for perfectly normal and predictable reasons…and then something rather odd happens that made you feel better, or fixed a problem unexpectedly.

The “hey, I know you’ve been down, but I also know you like rocks and I found this pretty crystal. Have a nice day!” type stuff.

Got to thinking on it because 1) I am a total sleep wimp, and 2) I’m a month and a half from the next baby being due. That means that, most nights, I can’t sleep. Mental note: next time, make sure that the last trimester is at the END of DST…. 😉

A couple of days ago, the girls were having screaming fits over everything. They’re tired, too; they miss their dad, mom isn’t as fun and can’t pick them up anymore, and there have been some minor disasters the last few weeks, from medical to minor injury to very minor vehicle trouble. As an added bonus, I emptied all the odds and ends stuff out of the closets to organize them properly, got a bunch of storage boxes and all… about two months ago, and haven’t managed more than a third of it. I knew that TrueBlue did a lot, but this is ridiculous.

I was unable to sleep, again, and about ready to cry from frustration, so I thought I’d try to find a registration code for a game I had on the old computer. Can’t find it. Try ever odder groupings of the name… and this email forward from a family friend that witnessed for our wedding, but has since died, popped up. It was one of those probably made up tear jerkers about a guy whose car suddenly had problems, and he managed to get to a gas station where he saw a woman in distress. He helped her and her kids out, feels the urge when she asks if he’s an angel to tell her “they were busy, so God sent me” and when he gets back to the car, it of course starts up.

The cry I got from that did more good than two hour’s worth of sleep, and I know it’s been making my days a bit easier. They’re still…trying, but I can deal a bit better, now. I’ve been able to get enough energy to do a couple of the things that I’ve had on my list for far too long, and I KNOW it’s made me a bit less irritable.

I still can’t find anything that should’ve triggered that search to bring up that email. I’m sure there’s something, but… a little, well-timed “accident” of the sort mom always taught us to be grateful for.

Trigger any thoughts anybody would like to share?

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Saturday, March 16, AD 2013 1:05am

[…] David Clayton, New Liturgical Movement Missa Cantata – Fr. Simon Henry, Offerimus Tibi Domine Little Miracles – Foxfier, The American Catholic Priest Accused of Abuse Drops Another Shocker: He’s […]

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Alphatron Shinyskullus
Saturday, March 16, AD 2013 1:49pm

This week, my son locked his keys in his recently purchased truck with the engine running. I went over to see if I could help him out with it. While I was there, I found a spot on one of his front tires that had been worn down to the wires under the rubber. The rest of the tire was fine, there was just this one spot where the previous owner must have repeatedly skidded the tires. The tire had been overinflated as well. Had he not locked his keys in his truck, a blowout of that tire was just a matter of time. It was a minor inconvenience that prevented what would have been a big one, potentially causing an accident. Small miracles…

3rdstringer
3rdstringer
Saturday, March 16, AD 2013 2:43pm

I was seven or eight years old in the midst of the depression, one of five children. One Saturday, two school friends asked me to go to the movies with them. I said sure, hoping to “borrow” from them the 7 cents for a ticket. I didn’t dare ask my parents (my Dad had no job). When we got to the theatre it was a mob scene, waiting for the earlier show to end. While waiting in the entry, I spied a ticket on the floor and picked it up. There’s no doubt in my mind, some 75 years later, who put it there.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Saturday, March 16, AD 2013 4:03pm

My sainted mother taught me how to drive which was quite a feat. I wasn’t the worst driver in the history of the world, but I was definitely in the running. I flunked driver’s ed and had to repeat it, although I did get my license on the first attempt. Mom always remained somewhat nervous about me as a driver, although I did get better with age.

Mom died on Easter Sunday 1984 after a heroic fight against the cancer that killed her. In September of that year, my bride and I were planning on driving to Meridian, Mississippi from Mattoon, Illinois for the wedding of her kid sister. It was the longest car trip I had made up to that point. My bride and I were driving in our 77 T-Bird the day before our trip, and suddenly the power steering went out. As I was driving to the garage to get that repaired, all four tires went flat, one after another. The tires were replaced, the power steering repaired and my bride and I had an enjoyable and safe trip to and from Meridian. Coincidence? Perhaps, although I have now been driving for 40 years and I have never seen anything like it before or since.

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Alphatron Shinyskullus
Saturday, March 16, AD 2013 6:40pm

Back in 1987 I went to Basic Training at Fort Bliss, Texas. I was issued a rifle that continuously malfunctioned. In fact, it was so old and worn out that parts wobbled and rattled when you shook it. I couldn’t get three shots off without a massive double or triple feed that took a considerable amount of time to clear. As a result, I had no practice because my time was taken up clearing multiple cartridges from the chamber of my weapon. The armorer couldn’t get it to function correctly. I dreaded the prospect of our marksmanship test. It had timed pop-up targets. If you didn’t get a passing score, you got “recycled” and sent back to an earlier phase of Basic Training to repeat the marksmanship portion. There was no leniency for malfunctioning weapons. I did not want to spend any more time in that place, and seriously considered going AWOL if I failed my test. I prayed hard the entire day leading up to the test. When it came time to shoot, my M-16 performed flawlessly, and I got the high score for the range that month. It was as if I was watching myself shoot. After that, my weapon went back to being the jam-o-matic piece of junk it was before. I once again couldn’t get three shots off without a jam. I consider that a miracle.

Don the Kiwi
Sunday, March 17, AD 2013 3:22am

I’ve got a couple – but this one sticks most in my memory.
In 1979 I had just carted my family across the Tasman to live in Australia. I had a very rough old ’64 Holden station wagon. It was 7 am. Sunday morning, Mass was at 8 am. a few miles away. The wagon had been hard to start, so went out at 7.15 am to start her, and warm her up before going to Mass. There was a “Rurr” sound, then silence. Flat battery. I opened the bonnet to let the early sun warm the battery, and went in to get my two young boys ready to come with me. We got into the car, and tried the ignition. Not even a “Rurr”.
My oldest boy said, “what are we going to do dad?”
I said, “you guys start praying.” “What will we pray?”
I said, “The Our Father.” So the boys broke into praying the Our Father.
When they got to “………..Thy will be done.” I hit the starter. No lie, I kid you not – the car roared into life.
We got to Mass on time. After Mass, we went out to drive home, and the car was dead as a dodo – not even a click. My cousin was a part rime mechanic, so I phoned him and he came out – replaced the points in the distributor, and jump started the car so we could get home, buying a new battery on the way.
The power of children’s prayer – I will never forget this.

philip
philip
Sunday, March 17, AD 2013 3:11pm

My turn.
My wife Mary and I we’re the caregivers for my mother-in-law Jeane. She had cancer and asked us to assist her in her last 18 months on earth.
We were blessed to fulfill her every wish.
On the morning of Aug. 25th 2000, at 6:30am Jeane was taken home. I stepped outside to reflect on the event. Suddenly three sandhill crain’s took to flight from the river across the street from Jeans home. The moment was breathtaking as I pondered the beauty of God in the Holy trinity.
Two years later at Jeans gravesite, after finishing the Joyful mysteries for Jeans soul, I looked overhead and a perfect heart shape cloud filled my soul with Joy.
A thank you from mom perhaps?
God is so good. He cannot be outdone in generosity.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Sunday, March 17, AD 2013 3:41pm

I can think of two things that happened to me while I was living in the Washington, DC area.

In early 1989, I was really hard up for money. I had a car payment (I did not want to buy a new car, but my dad insisted and I was stuck with the payments). A refund check came from the insurance company that I cancelled five months earlier.

Jump forward a little more than a year, and the car that I had (a 1988 Ford Tempo that I beat to death) began to sputter on I-95 on the way home from work. It stalled. I was stuck on the side of the highway. Cell phones were not common then and I certainly did not have one. Less than ten minutes later, a tow truck that was looking for someone else stopped and gave me a tow to a Ford dealer. The fuel pump was bad. Later, Ford recalled those cars with defective fuel pumps and my repair bill was refunded.

Don the Kiwi
Monday, March 18, AD 2013 2:03am

But Foxy……….
I’m not Irish 😉

St Donatus
St Donatus
Tuesday, March 19, AD 2013 9:29am

I had left the church 30 years ago but for some reason recognized the need to come back. I followed the same religion as my wife (Jehovahs Witnesses) but didn’t believe it. I was reading the Bible and writings of early christians and had come to the determination that the Catholic Church was started and guided by God. I knew my wife looked at our shared faith as the center of our marriage and for me to leave her religion could destroy our marriage. If I left I would be rejected by all our friends and her family. This would make it difficult to share friends and fun with my wife. I had come to the point where I had prayed to God to show me the way. Do I continue to go to the Kingdom Hall with her, save my marriage, yet worship God as a Catholic in my heart, or do I take a stand as the early Christians had? I prayed for an answer for several weeks.

One day I was driving down the interstate listening to a homily on Catholic radio about an old man on the island of Crete who loved everyone. He welcome everyone in the community by going to their Baptisms and say good bye by going to their funerals. When he was very old and ready to die, he asked his sons to lay him on the ground so he could die with the soil of Crete in his hand. He passed away and came to the gates of heaven. Peter asked him if he was ready to enter heaven, and he said yes, very much. Peter than asked what he had in his hand. The old man explained to him that it was his beloved soil of his beloved Crete. Peter said you must put God first. They old man replied, but this is so little. I have lived my whole life for God, please let me in. Peter replied, when you give all to God you can enter.

The next day, the old man approached the gate. This time Mary was to ask the same questions, but the old man just couldn’t give up his beloved Create.

The next day, the old man approached once again and it was Jesus at the gate. Jesus asked the man what it was he had in his hand. The man opened his hand and the soil had turned to sand and falling between his fingers. Jesus asked him if he was willing to give up union with God in heaven of that sand. The old man dropped the sand and Jesus invited him in. When he came through, all of the loved ones who had died were waiting to greet him and heaven was like the best Crete had to offer.

As I continued to drive, I prayed about this homily since it struck me as so pertinent. Just then there was a red semi trailer cross ways to the interstate like a large sign and in bold white it had one word on it, ‘Crete’. That was my sign from God. I rejoined the Church and my marriage became very difficult but it is getting better. But the Graces God has given me have made me the happiest I have ever been in my life. Deo Gratias. Praise be to God.

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