Part 1
This Christmas we received a book from our priest titled Holy Moments by Matthew Kelly. You might say the author writes to encourage his readers to put into action the daily exercise of living their faith. It isn’t rocket science just the idea that every day of our lives these holy moments come to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Most everyone experiences them when thoughts come into our mind of some kindness we can do for someone. For example letting another driver in when it will help him pulling onto a busy road Or it might be a thank you to someone checking you out in a store who seems particularly busy and upset.
This past New Years Eve I had one of these moments when I called a friend to have dinner with us. We enjoyed a meal as she brought appetizer, Prosecco wine, and desert in addition to our main meal. It really benefited myself and my husband as well because we had a wonderful meal and conversation. We said good-by at 10:30 pm. She lived alone on an unpaved road with several other homes; she lived a few miles away.
Around 11pm I called to make sure she arrived home as I had done before when it was late. I left a message on her home phone and waited for a call. None came so I tried a second time and left another message. Now my husband was worried about her and after some minutes I called her cell. No answer. At that point we became concerned because there was nowhere she would normally go that time of night and had told us she was going home.
We waited a while and decided to go to her house just to make sure everything was all right. When we went to our car, we noticed it was extremely foggy and as we drove it got worse. My husband took the most direct route to her house and as we drove I kept a lookout for her car on either side worried that she might have gone off the road. It was difficult to see our way and no other cars were around..
He said, “We are going to her house. If she isn’t there we have to call the police.”That scared me and I also hoped the fog was not too thick for us on her road. It was foggy when we turned onto the bumpy dirt road but we could see our way. As we passed the other houses I wondered if we’d find her home.
Part 2
As we approached her house and noticed there were lights on the floor above the basement. I felt relieved. But when we turned into the driveway my husband said, “She isn’t home. Her car isn’t here.”
I said, “She must be home. The lights are on. Go around the back and up the on deck to the door.”
He went to look and I heard her dog barking. He came back.. “She isn’t home. We have to call.”
Let’s go back the other way.”
“OK but I don’t think she’d go that way. It it has so many curves but we’ll try it.”
We sat silently looking through the fog for some sign of her. Now I feared the worst. After less than a mile My husband asked, “What’s that?” He pointed to a number of lights ahead we did not recognize.
Coming down the hill, I said, “It’s the church! But why is it lit up so late? There must be twenty light posts in the parking light.”
He said, “I don’t know but I think she must be there.”
The lights of the church shown through the stained glass windows. It was dark and foggy outside but we saw her car parked in ahead of us in front of the church.. We were relieved. But it was still a mystery to us. Why was she there and why were all the lights on?
Part 3 Coming soon!
DJ Pasternak, Author 