Thinking about signs and wonders, I recall the events that led up to the transition of my paternal grandmother, the late Loretta Gammons, Staples, Headley, Duncan. Yes, she was married three times and lived a large, sometimes harsh, but always beautiful and spirited life. She remained on this Earth longer than her siblings and her friends, including new friends she made during her years in residence at an assisted living facility close to my parent's home. My grandmother was a feisty and independent woman who supported her family and friends in a multitude of ways including emotionally, financially when she could and through her Christian faith. She taught me some of the most wondrous things and traditions that are slowly leaving our culture and being replaced by the contemporary age. I learned how to bake from scratch with her. I learned how to can vegetables and preserve meats. I learned how to properly use a pressure cooker and the consequence of not securing the lid tightly before placing it over the flame. Yep, we once had a full pot of beans launched into every crevice, cupboard, nook and cranny of her beautiful kitchen in Lafayette, Tennessee. What a mess! And what a laugh that came after the initial shock wore off.
I remember spending many a summer at her farm in Ormond Beach, Florida while she was married to her second husband, and the man I considered my grandfather, though not by blood. Back then, the extended family was huge! Honestly, I can't even say for sure how many there were. I just remember Christmases with a huge gang of cousins, aunts, uncles and my grandmother and grandfather at the helm, making sure everyone was enjoying themselves. Was it my grandfather or an uncle who dressed up as Santa and delivered gifts to all the children? It might have been both at different times, just to keep the kids guessing. Oh, we knew it wasn't really Santa, I think. At least I did, but it didn't matter. It was about being together and enjoying the festival of the season.
Later, after my grandfather transitioned, my grandmother would relocate to Tennessee close to the town she grew up in. Here the wonders and revelations of southern traditions continued to unfold and I was introduced to such things as fried apple pies, chicken and dumplings, drop biscuits, homemade ice cream, and cakes and pies for days. I remember she had a room in her house dedicated just to cake and pie storage, because it was slightly cooler than the rest of the house. Have you ever heard of Hummingbird cake? Neither had I. You'll be happy to know there are no hummingbirds harmed in its making. I'm not sure where it got its name. My grandmother didn't know either. It's kind of like a Carrot cake without the carrots. My grandmother would buy one every Thanksgiving from a lady in town who only made Hummingbird cakes. We would slowly devour it, day by day, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, taking larger and larger portions each day.
In my adult life, while I was living in Chicago, I would often spend vacation time and holidays with my grandmother in Tennessee. She continued to teach me about gardening and harvesting. She also introduced me to the tradition of Decoration Day, which had nothing to do with any holiday but was a time to celebrate our loved ones who had previously transitioned. We would do this by placing elaborate floral arrangements on their gravestones. In this part of the country, my ancestral lineage is vast and there were many cemeteries and graves to visit on Decoration Day. The trunk of her Lincoln Continental was filled in two layers of floral arrangements to adorn all the relatives buried in the county. I never revealed to her that I often saw my grandfather standing or leaning against his gravestone whenever we went to visit. He never had anything to say. I think he just wanted to be close to his family or to check up on us. I don't think he hangs out there anymore, but I haven't been back to visit in many years now.
After my grandmother's third husband transitioned, following a long period after a stroke in which she chose to take care of him herself in their home, she lived alone for a few years but her own health began to decline. Personally, I believe she became very lonely as she had already outlived her siblings and many of her friends at this point. Eventually, her large home became more of a burden than a refuge and my father, her son, stepped in to help her make some difficult decisions. He employed an auction house to sell most of her possessions, her car and her home. The auction company that handled the sale said they had never, ever, in their entire business in that county seen so much stuff. Grandma had become a bit of a hoarder. Evidently, there were things in every available space, some with price tags still attached. To her benefit, the sale generated enough money to float her the remainder of her life with a small portion left over for her 14 grandchildren. My grandmother relocated to Melbourne, Florida to be near my family. We toured all the assisted living facilities in town and it was her insistence that she retain as much of her own autonomy as possible. While her world became much smaller than it had ever been before, she was very content for many more years and made new friends. Unfortunately, in time she outlived her new friends too and soon her mind began to recede deep into herself.
In the weeks leading up to my grandmother's transition, I kept waking up throughout the night every couple of hours for nights on end. I did not relate this in any way to her or our connection. However, I did know from conversations we had had over the years that she had some fears regarding the dying process. I now believe she held on perhaps longer than she needed to due to those fears. As the time drew near for her transition, I began to see her in my dreams more often. Now this was unusual for me because I do not normally dream about family or friends that I am familiar with in this life. When I do, I pay special attention. There wasn't anything particularly auspicious about those dreams or precognitive, it was just her and I spending time together, sharing smiles and hugs like we had always done. So, it must have been somewhere in the last three weeks to a month prior to her transition that I was awoken many nights at 11:45pm. I would take this time to go out on the patio and stare at the stars, wondering at the heavens. Sometimes, I'm sure I saw strange objects silently sailing across the night sky. Anyway, one night around 11:50-11:55pm I received a call from my mother that my grandmother had made her transition, or has she said it, "grandma had gone home to Jesus." Of course, the actual time of death was 11:45pm.
More recently, after the transition of our beloved pastor, the Rev. Judy Campbell-Clark, actually on the that Labor Day eve, I took a long walk after the sun went down through my neighborhood along upper State Street and over by the Mission. When I returned to my building, which has a row of lamp posts along the front on State Street, as I passed by the first lamp post, it turned off. It wasn't a flicker, but as if its switch had been turned off completely. I looked over and felt chills race along my arms and down my back. I knew it was a sign from Judy. A sort of hello or goodbye or a "I'm still near" as she was heavily on my mind and heart that night. Once I completely passed the lamp post it sprang back to life, or light I should say, and I have not seen it turn off again.
Why was this a sign for me and how do I know it was from Judy? I believe and know we all experience signs from Spirit that are familiar to us based on our own experiences in our lives. For me, I've witnessed many lamp posts, street lights and table lamps shut off followed by the presence of Spirit (the body chills) and then coming back on again. This is one of my personal signs of Spirit. Sometimes for me, signs come in my dreams, like those I had of my grandmother leading up to her transition. Sometimes signs are seeing repeated numbers on clocks and license plates, or addresses and other places. I see signs in the clouds and while gazing at the night sky. I see signs in Nature and through visitations by animals, birds and insects. I suppose, for me, the signs are abundant if I am open. Some signs even come from the words people speak unbeknownst to them that what they have said is a sign for me.
I have a friend in Florida who is a practicing aromatherapist and lost her daughter at the tender age of 9 a few years ago. Andrea Rose was like a fairy creature. Small and light and full of life. A bit feisty for sure, but could light up a room just by being there. She also loved butterflies, believing they were fairies in disguise. A belief we share. Since her transition, her mother is often visited by butterflies at strange and unique times like on the anniversary of her daughter's transition. It's a beautiful thing.
In preparation for this piece, I was lead to do some research into miracles. I ran a simple Google search and the first item to come up brought me to a page with the following information that I have put into my own words:
At the top of the page it read: Miracles are also known as signs and wonders.
A true miracle is an event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of god, Nature, the Universe or Infinite Intelligence (insert your own), and operating without the use of means capable of being discerned by the five senses, and designed to authenticate the divine commission or experience of a spiritual teacher or person, and the relative truth of his/her experience.
It is an occurrence at once outside of Nature and above mankind. It shows the intervention of a power that is not limited by the laws either of matter or of mind, a power interrupting the fixed laws which govern their movements, a supernatural power.
The suspension or violation of the laws of Nature involved in miracles is nothing more than that which is constantly taking place around us every day. One force counteracts another: vital force keeps the chemical laws of matter in order; and muscular force can control the action of physical force. When a man raises a weight from the ground, the law of gravity is neither suspended nor violated, but counteracted by a stronger force.
The simple and grand truth that the Universe is not under the exclusive control of physical forces, but that everywhere and always there is above, separate from and superior to all else, an Infinite Intelligence, not superseding, but guiding and allowing, acting with or without the laws of Nature.
There are four Greek words that have been principally used to designate miracles in the context of biblical revelation. The first two are:
Semeion, a “sign”, i.e., an evidence of a divine commission; an attestation of a divine message; a token of the presence and working of Infinite Intelligence; the seal of a higher power.
Terata, “wonders;” wonder-causing events; portents; producing astonishment in the beholder.
The other two are related to works of the mighty and the meek.
Miracles are seals of a divine mission. The sacred writers appealed to them as proofs that they were messengers of the gods. The Christ also appealed to miracles as a conclusive proof of his divine mission as have many other spiritual leaders who had come before and after him. Thus, being out of the common course of Nature and beyond the power of man, they are fitted to convey the impression of the presence and power of Infinite Intelligence.
Where miracles are, there certainly god is. Therefore, the man who works a miracle offers clear proof that he/she comes with the authority of his/her known god; miracles are his/her credentials that they are divine messengers. The teacher points to these credentials, and they are a proof that he/she speaks with divine authority. They boldly state, “Spirit gives me witness, both with signs and wonders.”
The credibility of miracles is established by the evidence of the senses on the part of those who are witnesses of them, and to all others by the testimony of such witnesses. If the witnesses are competent, then their testimony is trustworthy. Signs and wonders are just as credible as any facts of history well authenticated by witnesses.
Miracles, it is said, are contrary to experience. Of course they are contrary to our experience, but that does not prove that they were contrary to the experience of those who witnessed them. We believe a thousand facts, both of history and of science, that are contrary to our experience, but we believe them on the ground of competent testimony.
We live in a wondrous world filled with magic and possibility. Look at the amazing inventions that the youth of today are creating! And signs from the spirit world are abundant if we allow our eyes to see them and our hearts to feel them.
I going to close with a poem of mine called Omen.
Omen
This morning I saw a pigeon lying, serenely, on its back
eyes closed gently, wings folded close and still as a meditation.
As if the bird foretold a transition or clause, and I felt a whisper through the hairs along my neck,
and time stopped as my awareness unfolded like a denouement to a mystery I knew.
