Sometimes in the midst of loss, God shows up in unexpected ways. Last week, my mother and I took a journey into the beautiful back roads of New York, slowly traveling through summer fields and taking in nature’s bounty. On one of our walks, mom found a large turkey feather sticking up out of the ground. I had just been talking about feathers, so she picked it up and handed it to me. Right away I felt drawn to the feather.
Mom and I were grieving. Just 3 days prior we lost someone dear to us. Someone who brought us peace and deep quiet in our souls. Someone who died on a back road just like the ones we were now traveling. It was a sudden loss.
But later that day, I read a random post in my social media feed about what to do when you find a feather on your path! (I can’t make this up, that’s really what the post was about!) The post said that First Nations believe if a feather appears on your path during a hard time you will be blessed with spiritual support and guidance. The post suggested using the feather for smudging and smoke prayers and that the “flyer” would guide and protect.
Serendipitously, I had just been researching the use of feathers in Native American culture and rekindling my knowledge of smudging with sage and the use of feathers in this process! This was all very mysterious.
I was taken aback by the sequence of events on our road trip.
It was as if the finding of the feather and the post were guiding my mother and me through a difficult time.
If that weren’t enough, the next day, as we traveled through the bucolic scenes, we came upon a large, lone turkey sitting on the shoulder of the road. Suddenly, the turkey lifted up and FLEW right across our windshield. It was an amazing, wondrous encounter. Wow!
My 81 year old mother said, “In all of my years, I have never seen a turkey fly!” Neither had I. We have since learned that turkeys can fly up to 50 mph!
The thread of events over those few days caused us pause. My mother and I are spiritual people, and we believe in connections and serendipity and discerning such events through God’s great light. We believe that God is ever present in every moment of our life and caring for us and talking with us. I gladly accepted the feather and the charge of the post as an affirmation of a Universal presence encouraging us on our path.
In our sorrow, we strangely felt comforted by feathers and promises of blessings and even seeing turkeys fly. Our tears turned to wonder and curiosity about Mother Earth, our connection to her and being guided during this time.
But if we had prayed for comfort, who might have guessed that it would come in the form of feathers, turkeys, adventures and readings?
When we pay attention, we receive attention. We receive comfort. God’s presence comes on the wings of God’s great beings and swoops down to comfort us.
We thank you God for signs and wonders. We thank you for beautiful soul messages. We thank you for Mother Earth and guidance. We thank you for lives that have touched us deeply. We thank you for comfort. Mostly, today, we just thank you.
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Amen.
Blessed
Written by Jane Hart, Copyright 2019