HI there! This is anothe rattempt to enlist your aid: I am still collecting stories of the Divine for my book: God's Letters Dropt in the streets. Great stories are coming my way, but I, being a greedy author and shaman, want more! see below for the entire post, and sample stories to inspire you.
blesings,
Elke
a call for divine stories
Posted 03/29/2006 11:01 AM
Reply by email or post if this inspires you:
I am putting out a call for short stories answering the following question:
Have you had a communication from or an encounter with the Divine?
To some of you, the Divine could also be known as God, to others, The Divine could include divine encounters with people, angels, spirits, or just happenings that might have been so synchronistic, you might consider them divine interventions or communications of a sort.
I am finding that the biznik community is so diverse, creative and intuitive: surely there are some juicy stories out there!
I am compiling these stories for a book series entitled: "God’s Letters Dropt in the Streets". The title by the way, for all you literati, is from the gorgeous, long poem by Walt Whitman: A Song of Myself. Four lines from the tome/poem have inspired me for years:
In the faces of men and women I see God
And in my own face in the glass.
I find letters from God dropt in the streets
And everyone is sign’d by God.
Thank you so much.
Peace and blessings to all you divine people!
Rev. Elke
__
From Washington state:
Clean up your act, and then Ask for what you want:
I was in my early 40s. I was divorced, broke, and living way out in the woods. I had no job prospects, I was having health problems, and I was scared. But a small voice inside me told me to do something very different from anything I'd done before.
First of all, I took care of everything I could take care of myself. I cleaned up my little place. I cleaned out every drawer and file. I fixed everything that was broken. I borrowed money from my brother and paid off all my bills. I worked until there was nothing nagging at my mind. (A tall order.)
In this clear, quiet space, I sat down and wrote out a list of what I wanted. I didn't say "I want to be a writer" - instead, I wrote down what I wanted to feel like in my new job. I said I wanted to feel good about the people I worked for and the work I was doing, that I wanted to use all my skills to their highest level, and that I wanted to be paid well for them. I specified some other things as well. Then I "gave it to God" and went outside and laid in the hammock and enjoyed the spring weather.
A month later I got a call out of the blue from a friend from graduate school, offering me a job! The job was writing educational materials for a nonprofit company that was committed to empowering health care patients. The job paid twice what I'd ever made before. In that town, I found a physician who was able to trace all my health ailments to a simple, easily treated problem. I also found a counselor who helped me get closure on my divorce and deal with an underlying anxiety issue.
- *
Three years later, I wanted to move back to my home town area. Since I now knew how God liked to work with me to manifest things, I did the same thing as I did before: cleaned up my act, got very clear about what I wanted, gave it all to God, and relaxed. This time I asked for a job within a couple of hours of my family, but not in the same town. And I asked that I find a welcoming community where I would feel at home, because that was lacking in my present situation. (I'd forgotten to specify it before!)
A couple of weeks later I opened the monthly newsletter from an organization I belonged to and glanced at the job listings. Then stared with my mouth open. A job doing exactly what I had been doing was listed - in a beautiful resort community 90 minutes from my home town! The resort community is the kind of place people retire to, but people don't go there looking for work. Most of the jobs are tourist-industry jobs: waiting tables, cleaning hotel rooms. Yet here was a job writing patient education materials, at the same salary I was currently making.
I sent my resume in an e-mail to them, and got a phone call back 2 hours later inviting me to interview. I flew to the town, hit it off right away with the people I'd be working for, and was offered the job during the interview. I spent the next couple of days looking for a place to rent without success. Then I happened to see an ad for a beautiful little cottage that I could afford. I walked in and before I got past the dining room, said "I'll take it." I just knew it was my house. I made an offer, it was accepted, and I flew back to give notice at my old job - hyperventilating at how fast it had all happened. I tell people that once I told God what I wanted, a vortex opened up and sucked me right to it!
And yes, I found my community. I found a church that exactly fit my own beliefs, joined a choir, and found friends of my own age and interests - something I had not had in my last place, because I'd never told God I was open to being helped to find that. My minister likes to say that "our angels are just waiting to help us - but we have to give them permission first."
Oh, by the way - I bought the house on a stormy day. It was not until I had moved in that I looked out the living room window one day - and saw mountains! I had a view! I had no idea. Now every time I "raise up my eyes unto the hills," I say a prayer of thanks for being guided even more beautifully than I knew at the time.
_
From Texas:
This happened 1989, I think...I was living in an apartment, a house really, that had the upstairs converted into two apartments, split right down the middle. Our side was the south side, with the beach about five or so blocks away. My daughter was little then and it was just her and I living there while I worked at the library and attended college. Anyway, I didn't have a car then and so, we spent lots of time out riding the bike for transportation and using the city buses. There are a lot of homeless people here and I think I ran into everyone of them along the way. We lived in between two gangs that I knew of at the time, guess it was a shady part of town. It didn't used to be.
I remember this one particular homeless man. He was very tall, dark, of Asian descent. I saw these homeless people everyday and they saw me everyday. Sometimes I think they knew where I'd be at any given time of the day. I thought this one Asian homeless guy could read my mind sometimes…it was scary.
Anyway, that year it was an incredibly cold winter with ice, which this part of the country never sees. And, I remember seeing him out there with these great big holes in his shoes, dragging his feet along. His feet had to be frozen. So, I prayed, Dear God, I wish he could get some new shoes to keep his feet warm.
The next morning when I awakened to a smell…oh yes, it was the homeless Asian guy. You could smell him a block away. He was close to my home that day, very close.
So I looked out the front window or opened the front door, I don't remember which now, and, there he stood all smiling at me and everything with the biggest, brightest, prettiest white new tennis shoes on.
It was kinda weird and scary for me. I didn't know what to do. But, one thing was evident, God heard my prayer and answered it and I guess saw fit for me to see that. It was an incredible feeling.
From: Saudi Arabia
When I was 9 years old my family uprooted from Texas and moved to Saudi Arabia. My father got this great new job that would allow him to make a lot of money (for us).
When I was 13, I would baby sit neighborhood kids. I saved 75 Saudi dollars (called Riyals). I received a gold neck chain for my birthday and didn’t like the pendant. I saw a pendant I wanted that had the word God (Allah) written in Arabic on it alone. I went with my parents to the shopping district and spent half a day going in and out of the gold stores. Since it was considered safe there I walked alone while my parents did their own shopping. Everywhere I went the lowest price was 85 riyals. I couldn’t get any of the merchants to go lower than 85. So as the time neared for me to meet my parents I gave up and figured I would have to save more. On the way back to the car I saw a woman begging for money in order to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. I gave her 10 riyals. I figured I had to save the more money anyway so why not help her now? When I met my parents they weren’t ready so I went into a gold store near the car and saw the pendant I wanted. Just for kicks, I asked the guy if I could see it. I really wanted it and thought maybe I could ask my dad for the rest. I asked the merchant how much and he said 65 riyals. This may seem like a coincidence to some but I begged at least 10 merchants to negotiate this same pendant. I knew God had wanted me to be worthy. I have worn that pendant everyday since. I am now 37.
By the time I was 18, I was indoctrinated with religion both Christianity and Islam. My mother’s side was Christian and my father Muslim. My grade school best friends were Hindu and Buddhist. I went to a Moravian high school and had a Jewish roommate my first year. In order to graduate we were required to take comparative religion classes. Having traveled all over the world I experienced a lot of different cultures and religions. It occurred to me one day that every one of these religions professed to be the only way to God. The rebel in me made me question the truth in this belief for each one. I recognized that I was born into mine and my choices were given by my parents. Why would God let people be born into a religion that is not of HIM and then punish them? So I decided I couldn’t believe in such a God and I decided to reject all religion. It all had to be made up otherwise who’s right?
The night I decided this I thought to pick up the Koran and start my life over educating myself to the myths of religion and see if I could find in it any redeeming help to humanity as a whole. I wouldn’t stop at Islam I would read all religion as myth. I freed my mind and heart of all the brainwashing and ideas of God I had been told and prepared to relearn existence. As I read through the verses, they seemed quite silly and I thought, well this is a nice way to teach right and wrong. Also thinking it was man’s right and wrong that was being taught. I don’t know how long I had been reading but in a flash of time I felt I had been scooped up (the way a child would hold a ladybug in its hand and cover it with the other hand). In that moment I was completely surrounded by clean white pure light that felt like nothing else. I have never in this life felt so safe where truly nothing could harm me. It’s the kind of safe a child must feel in the womb before the reality of life pushes it out. While in this light, I knew I wasn’t alone. I was surrounded by a sense of peace and knowledge. It was an infinite moment where every question was answered. All I had to do was ask. I knew the moment wouldn’t last and I knew I wouldn’t remember all the answers to all the questions I had asked so I asked “What is the most important thing I need to know?” Slowly I felt like I was being lowered back to my original spot and I remember the last thing I heard, the only thing I heard was a voice saying “LOVE” I closed the book and the world made sense to me. I know from that experience that this life is the illusion and we are merely visiting souls learning to do what we already know how to do but with hurdles and challenges. I was shown Love. God is Love and we all want to be in it. When we feel alone we remember how if feels to be in God and we long for human companionship to fill that void. Being in romantic love is life’s substitute for the real thing. When we fall in love with each other we feel peaceful, invincible, happy, strong, and nothing can ruin that. We all ache for the feeling of home and being in Love. We want to be home with God. So we morn not having it and we are sad when we feel out of love. There is an energy that fills the universe and has awareness. It is a power that is our home when we are free of human bodies. That energy is Love. God is Love and each of us is God.
Often when I forget, I listen to the last verse of this one song that says it all.
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all
And if by chance, that special place
that you've been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love
- Greatest Love of All
George Benson
----note from Elke: Pretty cool, huh?
peace.
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