Listening

Last Wednesday, I had went to town to run some errands before picking M up from school. I called my Momma as I do on a daily basis to check in and to catch up for the day when I instinctively pulled over in front of a friend’s brother’s store to see her for a few moments before having to be at the school. We grew up on the same street and our moms still live there within sight of each other. Mind you, I had no particular reason to be there other than to see her for a little while. The spacious antique mall wasn’t very busy which is unusual and her brother even commented if he had known it was going to be quiet for an afternoon he would have taken off to do some shopping for the store. He left to do an errand that his mom made mention of and left us there to chat.

As most of you know, my Dad passed in April of this year. Over a month before his passing, he told me ~ I will always be with you. He was and is a man of his word. Stay with me and you will see.

My brother has always called our Dad “Superman”. He could do anything he put his mind to and did. He could operate any piece of equipment he sat on with utter perfection every time as a result. His family was and is his everything. The Superman “S” comes to us frequently without even looking for it. I know what you are thinking ~ we just “notice” them more now that they have always been there. Nah ~ I don’t believe it. So, here JE and I are in the store and a couple comes in with a little boy and they are looking around and I don’t see this little one with them. The man had on a t-shirt that the back said ~ First Rule of Gun Safety – Carry One. JE said ~ I like your shirt and I chimed in and said – so do I. (My Dad knew everything you wanted or could know about guns). «God Wink #1» Then another lady came in looking for a mirror. As JE  tells her to help herself to look around, I turn and this little boy is standing there with the signature “S” on his shirt. I looked at JE and we were like ~ wow. I said ~ man I love that shirt. He just smiled and went on. «God Wink #2» JE began to assist the lady in the hunt for the perfect mirror. I looked around at thousands of items in the store around me and noticed a red jingle bell hanging which sparked my memory that M needed a hand bell for the Christmas Pageant at my brother’s church. I thought ~ JE can be on the lookout for one in the thousands upon thousands of items in the store. I didn’t have time to look because remember I need to leave to get M from school.

Another lady came in and JE said ~ have you been to Remo’s? (Remo’s is a famous Italian hot dog shop in our small town that has a very distinct smell and you cannot walk in there without coming out smelling like Remo’s). **Backstory here real quick** My Dad use to take me to Remo’s as a little girl and then began to take M there on Saturday mornings and then they would hit up a farm pond or two (usually one he had built). The lady said ~ oh my goodness can you smell me? We laughed and said ~ yeah but it’s ok! «God Wink #3» Which, I might add, it didn’t even “click” with me until I told this to M and GW.

So back to the lady looking for a mirror. JE was still assisting her when I wandered around waiting for her to finish to ask her to look for this hand bell for M and her Christmas Pageant. She was standing in front of a mantle with an older mirror hanging above it and the lady said ~ I like it. It’s the right size but the age of it is the type that makes the mirror look dirty all of the time. She thanked JE for her time and said she would continue her search. She left. I said to JE ~ M needs a……. bell. as I pointed over her left shoulder ~ there it sat. The exact kind of bell she needs.

Of all the places, out of thousands and thousands of items, there, on that mantle, under the old streaked mirror, sat the bell. I stood there mouth open in awe of what was sitting there. I felt my Dad with me all day and it continued throughout that store. That store, was the last place that JE talked to him. JE was standing exactly where she was suppose to be standing to find THE bell for the Christmas pageant.

I handed JE the bell to check out and it rang out on our way to the counter and she said ~ every time a bell rings an angel…. we both stopped and almost broke into tears. Well, yeah a few were shed.

Divine ~ absolute divine day that I will cherish forever. If we just stop and “listen” to what is around us and “hear” what is given to us we are blessed with glimpses of Heaven and divine intervention. My Daddy told me he would always be with me and he took that moment and that day to show me.

XOXO ~

PGWW