By Danika Dinsmore
Each day should be devoted to miracles. [CE T-1.15.1:1]
Opportunities to put Course lessons into practice can pop up anytime and anywhere, including at 6:30 AM on a Thursday at a surprisingly busy airport. I’m heading to my gate at the Vancouver airport to catch an early flight to Hawaii via Los Angeles. When I arrive at the crowded waiting room with time to spare, I search for a spot to charge my phone and do my Course lesson. Just past the waiting area, where it is less chaotic, I spy two unoccupied side-by-side outlets. A miracle already! I plug in and put my headphones on to quieten the noise.
I close my eyes and moments later feel the presence of another person plugging in next to me. Waves of restless energy emanate from her as she digs through her belongings. I immediately ask Spirit if I should speak to her. No, go back to your lesson.
I ask God how I can perform miracles today. See each individual you come upon today as a divine light from heaven. Feeling the agitated energy next to me, I turn my prayer on the woman next to me.
You are a divine light from heaven. You are pure love.
When I open my eyes, I get a message. Speak with her now.
I turn and smile. “Are you on the flight to L.A.?” I ask.
“Yes,” she gives me a tired smile back. “With my family. Those are my three sons over there.”
I can hear their roughhousing through the noise. No wonder she’s tired. I get a nudge to tell her the truth about where I’m going and why.
“I’m on my way to Hawaii,” I say. “I’m going to collect my mother from her caregiver and bring her back home. I think she’ll transition soon.”
The woman’s energy shifts, stills, and she looks into my eyes. “You’re doing the right thing.”
She tells me that not long before, her father passed from ALS. Her three siblings hadn’t wanted to see him so debilitated, so they’d kept away, but she spent the last of his time on the planet being with him, loving him, providing for him, even hiring a bagpiper to send him on his way (he was Scottish).
“Giving him as much time and love as I could left me with none of the guilt or remorse my sister and brothers are feeling now.”
I nod and make a mental note to set up video calls with my brothers soon.
We laugh and cry together as we talk about all the things we’d done for our parents in their final years. Me taking mom to her favorite beach, Volcano National Park, a production of Avenue Q, an interactive dinosaur exhibit, and her New Thought church.
“I threw her Celebration of Life early so she could see all her friends one last time,” I say. “That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
The woman’s eyes shine; her momentary anxiety forgotten. “It’s the love that matters,” she says. “Nothing else.”
She takes my hand. “What you’re doing now for your mom is the most beautiful gift you can give yourself. It will be sad, but it will also be amazing.”
What’s amazing, a miracle to be sure, is that what started as me transforming my judgment to see her as divine light turned into her giving me a gift: the right and perfect message I needed to hear.
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A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service one person can render another. It is thus a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. [CE T-1.18.1:1-3]
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