IT's a GOD THING

"When you look at the stars you should tremble..."

                                                     -John Geddes

October waned. Wind  shrieked, ripping leaves  from their stark  limbs.  Mountains soared above in the distance.  So far away she couldn’t touch them.

. Like the year they drove from the prairies, leaving everything behind. She and her young son stopped  to gather snow. It dissolved like jello foam. 

And the mountains spoke. But she did not hear.  

“It’s a God thing” the wind whispered. She looked down, and did not look up.

Years tumbled by .  She found miracles in simple things.  Like when the car broke down  in the dead of night, on a dark street.  A stranger happened by. A good and kind man who helped get her car started, then disappeared into the night. She forgot to thank him.

One day, driving home in the night, the car was struck by an elderly couple . He’d fallen asleep at the wheel. Didn’t see the red light. Everyone walked away. 

He  and his wife kept in touch for a while , after that. They gave her a job. She forgot to thank them.

Being led from darkness, without knowing it was darkness. 

There was one time her young son was late coming home from school. She just happened to have the flu,and been home all day. She went out to meet him.  

She saw him , at the end of the street. And the strange car. She saw him pause, one foot on the runner. He looked up, and saw her. He ran to her. Ran with abandon. She marched over to the car and bawled out the two in the front seat. She let them know she’d seen them. She would be on the lookout. She showed no fear.  

She never saw the one holding her hand all those days and nights. 

But she knew it was  a “God thing”, though she couldn’t say it.

Every moment fit together, tied together like  a fish net, leading one into another. Each piece of the puzzle revealed. 

Like the mountains and their perfect snow. 

She longed to feel  snow crumble  in her hands. To hear the mountains tremble once more. To hear the whisper. To look up  and see.

To hold fast, to those hands that reached for her. To hear all that was and would be…         

Photographs Mt. Washington Range, B.C.  2022