On Sunday, Siren and I were sitting at MLT (Michael's Love Tree). It was a beautiful day, temperatures up to 29 degrees celsius. On Monday it rained, on Tuesday it snowed, and on Wednesday morning the heavy wet snow was causing tree branches to break under the weight, falling on cars and power lines all over the city.
I knew that our little tree would have no trouble with snow, as it is small and doesn't have many leaves this year, but it is in an area with many other big trees and bushes, so I decided to go make sure MLT was ok. As I drove up to the park, I could see that trees and branches were down all around the park. I stopped across the street from MLT and I was shocked to see that the whole landscape had changed. The huge bushes were flattened to only a fraction of their normal height and tree branches were on the ground. I could see MLT was leaning a bit more than usual to the left. I rushed over to the bench that sits in front of the clearing, looking at the mess and wondering what I could do.
I instantly decided to call Siren to tell her about this. I was holding the phone to my ear, waiting for her to answer when I heard a huge crack above me. I knew it was a branch breaking, but there was no time to react, and a split second later it hit me. I screamed and jumped away, covered in wet snow and ran a few steps away, shaking the snow off. Then I remembered that Siren was on the phone. She had no idea it was me, as we almost never talk on the phone. We usually talk by text, and I hadn't told her I was going to the tree. It was surreal! Having been there three days earlier with everything perfectly warm and normal and now branches were falling on my head! I told her what was happening and then hung up the phone so that I could take pictures to show her. I was afraid to go in closer to MLT, in case of more falling branches, but I had to get there somehow so I went around the back way, where there were only bushes until I could see that it was the long limbs from the caragana bush nearby that was pushing on MLT. I shook the snow off some of the limbs and that helped them to bounce back up a bit so they weren't touching the tree. I went around the other way to get in closer to where the plaque is located in the ground. That was when I saw how big the branch was that had hit me! OMG! It was huge!
I was now completely soaking wet, as I only had shoes on and a light sweater and I decided it was time to leave.
I sat in the car, wondering what had just happened. What are the chances that a branch would fall just at the moment I was standing there? Why did I call Siren right at the same moment, even though I almost never call her? Of course, I don't believe in coincidence, so the only explanation was that Michael dropped the branch on me. But why would he do that? I always look forward to signs that He is with me, but I wasn't sure that this was a good sign. Many times in the past I have told Him, please hit me over the head if I don't understand what you are trying to tell me. This is the first time it has actually happened. It was obvious there was something I needed to pay attention to.
I already knew what it was about. Earlier that day I had been involved in a discussion online and I had made a comment that had upset someone. At the time I made the comment, I was a bit upset myself, and although I knew I should wait until I could come from love instead of the need to make a point, I didn't. I was more interested in being right than in actually helping anyone, and it came across all wrong. I now realized that Michael was telling me to think about that.
So I did. I wrote back to the person I had offended, and told her what I had done, and that I was sorry.
Later on in the evening, I noticed I was dizzy, my neck was a bit stiff, my leg had the beginning of a bruise, and I was extremely tired. I wasn't really worried, but I did remember that concussions can be dangerous.
Luckily, I was still alive this morning and feeling pretty good. When I saw the huge bruise on my leg, I realized that I should have an even bigger bruise on my head, considering the branch had hit my head before my leg, but my head felt perfectly fine! That was when I realized that Michael had actually saved me from being seriously injured. Instead of feeling bad that I had acted in a way that was not up to what I wanted Him to see, I now was extremely grateful that He had saved me from harm!
The first song I heard in my car, was Man in The Mirror. Of course, I have heard it a million times, but this morning the words - If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and make a change, sounded extra loud and clear. What I understood then, was that I do have a lot to say that I am very passionate about. I want to follow Michael's example and live and act from Love. But if I want to do it right, it should be in a different way than just commenting on someone's post and trying to make a point. That was when I remembered that I used to write a blog post once a week, and I haven't written anything at all for months. I decided to write about this incident of the falling branch, and hopefully I will have more to say in the future.
Thank you Michael, for this extremely beautiful gift. You never fail to show me what I need to see, in the most perfect way.
No comments:
Post a Comment