watch for the signs

     The other day, a friend and I were going to go hiking on the Broken Arrow Trail.  She had never been there, and I had last been there several years ago.  I remembered how magnificent it was, and I remembered there was a big sink hole there which locals had called "The Devil's Dining Room."  We both thought this was a negative and strange name for it, so we renamed it "Komwida's Kitchen."   Komwida pukwia, meaning Grandmother White Stone-with-great-stone-medicine-power, is the First Woman of Yavapai creation myth, which I have talked of in a former blog.  We thought honoring her by renaming the place we were eager to check out was a good idea.  We started out early in the morning, and decided that before we did our hike, we should have a good breakfast, because it promised to be a long one.  As we drove into the shopping mall where the breakfast place was we wanted to go to, lo and behold!  there was a big sign, as you see in the picture above. "Kitchen Konnection."   We both laughed and took a picture, seeing it as an interesting synchronicity telling us we were going on the right track with our plans. ( Our hike proved to be a wonderful one, and I am including a couple pictures of it, one of them being "Komwida's Kitchen.")

     If you stop and reflect, you can probably remember similar "co-incidences" in your life, maybe considerably more major than this one.  Maybe not.  The point is that its a useful spiritual practice to be alert for synchronicities in our lives.  If this is a meaningful and essentially benevolent universe  (God is so good!) which I choose to believe, then it makes sense that we would be receiving lots of help and guidance if we want it, ask for it, and then look for the signs of it.  It's interesting.  Since I have been out here, I have found myself becoming far more alert to the signs.  I can tell you, it makes life more fun, more exciting, more interesting, and more rewarding.  It gives me a feeling of being "in the flow,"  and it makes me much more aware of the Guiding Presence of a loving God who cares about my life and my choices, even the small ones.  

     I think of the wonderful old story of the Exodus, which tells us that the people of Israel were led through the desert by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.  For forty years, they were guided through trackless wilderness in this way.  A hymn I love celebrates this in the following words. "God's banner is o'er us, God's love goes before us, a pillar of fire shining forth in the night, 'till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished, as forward we travel from light into light. "   YES!   And even little "signs and wonders"  can be that guiding pillar for us, if just have the eyes to see it.