Tuesday, October 02, 2018

So - A Strange Story

The Magical Beach

At my age we have to be careful of the men in white coats brandishing strait jackets.

Especially when it comes to the unexplainables.

I verbalized an extraordinary occurrence to only three people.

The first dismissed me out of hand and changed the topic of conversation immediately and never got back to what I had experienced.

The second asked me quite seriously and with concern: Did you hear voices in your head?

The third nodded carefully and said: Oh, I totally get that.

So here goes:
I was on this spectacular beach on a gorgeous day sitting in my beach chair. A young man passed with his dog and we exchanged pleasantries. This youngish black dog looked me right in the eyes as he walked past, he was on a leash. Dogs do this with me sometimes as if desperate to communicate their thoughts.

The young man went a distance away on the sand, the tide was out. He began to train his dog. I am familiar with that having trained a few. All the commands obeyed were rewarded with tiny treats. He was good, the commands were simple, one word, clear. Memories flooded me. There is nothing like a quivering dog, rooted in a stay, waiting for a release. The joy shared by trainer and trainee is immeasurable.

I just couldn't stop the tears. I was alone so there was no one to see, feeling utterly sad, missing my Ansa so much, how she loved the beach, how we frolicked, she was a great paddler but hated swimming. And paddle she did once she saw water with this wonderful grin on her face. Sometimes tears can hurt right down to the toes. They did for me that day.

A large perfect feather wafted down onto my lap and I held it to my cheek and stopped crying. And clearly I immediately sensed I could walk the beach, an impossible challenge.

So holding the feather I got up off the beach chair and walked and walked without pain and then turned around and walked back to the chair. An unimaginable feat. I held the feather for a while and then carefully inserted it into my camera bag for safe keeping and walked a little more, I came back to the camera bag and the feather had vanished. I searched high and low everywhere within quite a radius, no feather.

I had the strongest message again that the feather was merely a temporary sign of greater things to come, to stop hunting. To be still.

Which I did.

Three days later, I was having breakfast with my guest-friend in my local diner when I looked up and standing there in front of me was a person I love dearly but who has been long absent from my life for many, many years. We both burst into tears. This reunion has been exploding with joy ever since. In ways I could never have imagined. This remarkable event is now all connected to the dog, Ansa, the tears and the feather in my mind.

Coincidence? Well yes, says my reality check.

But something else? Well, perhaps yes. Though I am far from being a woo-woo person.

But this whole experience?

Inexplicable.

31 comments:

  1. Great story. Just because you can't explain it doesn't mean is not real.

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    1. Thanks Tom. I had a little trepidation putting it out there.

      XO
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  2. I'm in the "I totally get that" camp WWW. I still have a feather in an old purse of mine, saved there for many many years, souvenir of something not a million miles from your story told today. The old tale - I think - is that that when a feather lands on you or close to you from above, it comes from your guardian angel watching over you, helping you through hard times....yeah - I know - not logical or rational...but...not everything has to be - does it?
    :-/

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    1. True Dat, T, but being of logical mind I try and "normalize" the experience into scientific terms, but this truly baffled me. Interesting that you had a similar experience. Feathers are extraordinary. Even to pick one up and study it at length and realize the power.

      XO
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  3. Well, I've found a lot of feathers recently. Does that mean I'm due for a lot of good luck, I wonder? That's remarkable that when you held the feather you could walk without pain.

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    1. Isn't it Nick? Haven't been able to do it since :( I hope you kept your feathers. I remember having one stuck in the rearview mirror of my car years ago, can't remember exactly its story but it must have been powerful.

      XO
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  4. Wonderful!

    I was at a beach today with my dog, there was a man with a dog there too. The man nearly lost his dog to Lyme Disease this summer but the dog has made a remarkable recovery. The man was watching my dog, Hapi, wading in the water and he said to me, "I hate to say this but, you're never going to be able to replace her." It's true, isn't it. You have captured the intensity of joy and sadness intertwined and I'm glad you had the magic of a feather.

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    1. Your Hapi reminds me of my Ansa so much, there was a small percentage of husky in Ansa, enough to make her roll in joy in the snow at the first snowfall.

      Yes they can never be replaced, they are "the ones".

      XO
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  5. Something more. How wonderful for you to walk without pain and even more wonderful the return of a loved one. I hope it is your daughter.
    Whatever happened and why it happened who knows. I'm happy that it did happen.

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    1. Candace, no not my daughter but equally dear to me. Yes, an extraordinary experience. We need to share more of them.

      XO
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  6. I've had smaller experiences a bit like this, elements of your story perhaps. I have no explanation but I take it seriously.
    Yesterday the librarian and I found a feather at work. It was indoors and not a average feather. I would have kept it as some kind of totem but the librarian thought it should be thrown away.
    I have sometimes found a feather when leaving a birth.
    Who knows what powers there are.

    It must have been a joy to walk the beach. I'm pleased for you.

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    1. It was Kylie, interestingly enough in my dreams I am running like I used to, often getting medals but sometimes walking briskly, I used to walk really quickly. That beach walk I will never forget.

      I would have hidden the feather from the librarian if I could :)

      XO
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  7. We all should have such extraordinary experiences.

    Interesting about the feather. There has been an abundance of feathers in our yards this year. We have lots of birds about because I and the next door neighbor put out lots of feedstuffs for all of the wild critters. I have attributed the feathers to that, but who knows...

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    1. Maybe many have less significance than just one? Who knows. This seemed to fall out of the blue, I didn't notice birds. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio......

      XO
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  8. Oh, my. You make me believe in fate, kismet. Very well written post.

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    1. Thank you Gigi. There is far too much unexplained and mysterious in our universe.

      XO
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  9. Let me try one more time to comment. I just wanted to say "Synchronicity."

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    1. I've pondered this word since you emailed it to me Ramana, but not sure now. Foreboding would be one I would choose, a foretelling of the best yet to be perhaps. I still can't quite believe it.

      XO
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  10. Happy to hear you were able to walk pain free. As far as I can see, the feather was a gift and you used it wisely. There's nothing more to be said. Just accept it and hold that those moments close to your heart.

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    1. Definitely Judith, I'm still in a state of marvellous shock and awe. I would like to write more about it but I need to respect the privacy of the other.

      XO
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  11. Oh my, Wonderful and magical all around. I have a friend whose husband was very ill and in the hospital. She was teary and feared he was going to die. She was sitting alone in a waiting room when a red haired woman came quietly to a nearby seat, looked her in the eye and said "he's going to be okay." She slipped away as quickly as she arrived. My friend was stunned by the experience and kept it to herself for many weeks, then confided in me one day, wondering if I believed in angels. I believe I do. Kim in PA

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    1. Or another sense Kim that I have felt only rarely like the feather and the sense of expectation that was left with me. I believe we don't plug into something deeper in our perceptions, take time to explore a heightened awareness, cellular memories, the "we are all stardust" concept, thus connected to everything.

      XO
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  12. I am so happy for you to have had all this happen to you.

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  13. Interesting. We're meaning-makers, we humans. So interpret it in the way that makes sense for you, and rejoice.

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    1. And story-tellers if we allow that side of ourselves to emerge, to dig deeper to become more aware of the "littles" of life.

      XO
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    1. It certainly is Lily, I love the mystery of it all. And the unexplainables.

      XO
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  15. Sometimes we all need a sign, a reminder to be still and to wait. Yours was a beautiful one.

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  16. As you know your story prompted me to resurrect one of mine concerning a feather. I find people who dismiss these events out of hand to be rather narrow-minded. We're just not sufficiently advanced to know everything. In truth, we know very little. To shrug off some happening as "coincidence" or "fantasy" is sheer arrogance. Why care what others choose to think. These events are very personal. In this instance the focus of the energy was on you alone. What it meant to you is all that matters.

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