Innholdsfortegnelse for October - November 2017 i Mysterious Ways

It was May 5, 2013. Easter Sunday. Well, Orthodox Easter Sunday, I should say. My parents were born in a small town in southeastern Turkey, and we’re Syriac Orthodox, descended from some of the first Christians in the Middle East. So we celebrate Easter according to a different calendar. We still have Easter eggs and pastelcolored candy, of course. But let’s just say there’s a lot more ancient Aramaic flying across the dinner table! This particular Easter, though, I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. I’d been working as a copywriter for several years. It wasn’t a bad job. But I dreamed of writing stories like the ones my mom told me about Turkey. Tales of faith, courage, even miracles. Instead, I was writing marketing e-mails. Did God really want…

Twenty-five years have flown by since actress Tracey Gold starred in the hit television series Growing Pains. But on-screen and off, Tracey shared a lasting bond with her TV dad, Alan Thicke. A bond that Tracey recently discovered was stronger than she ever knew. Growing Pains was Tracey’s big Hollywood break. She was just 16 when she stepped into the shoes of know-it-all teen Carol Seaver. As the show became a success, the cast grew close. It was her sitcom family who held an intervention for her as Tracey battled anorexia in the early ’90s. Tracey’s on-screen mom, Joanna Kerns, even introduced her to her future husband. Years after the show ended, Alan remained a lovable father figure to Tracey. “I always listened to his advice and wisdom,” Tracey said…

A couple Sundays ago, after church, I found myself chatting in the pews about Hildegard of Bingen. There we were, three of us New Yorkers, talking about this wildly gifted, mystical German nun from the 12th century. “She had these visions,” I said. “‘Secret mysteries of God,’ she called them. “One of the first women composers,” Evelyn said. “Her sermons electrified the masses,” Tom said. More than eight hundred years after her death, Hildegard continues to startle. She was a holistic healer before there was such a thing. A preacher when women had no voice. A theologian who never went to school. A powerful female leader in a prefeminist age. In her time, she had the ear of princes, popes and emperors, convincing them of the righteousness of her views.…

It was 45 minutes to my cousin’s wedding reception in Nashville, Tennessee, and my mom was driving. I had my cousin’s vanilla-frosted, two-tier wedding cake on my lap. My mom made a sharp left turn, and the box went flying. The cake was smashed against the dashboard. Frosting was smeared all over the inside of the rental car. I glared at my mom, ready to let her have it. Then burst out laughing. Not just a few giggles. More like gut-busting laughter. Pretty soon, my mom was laughing too. Tears streamed down our cheeks; we couldn’t have stopped if we tried. We made it to the reception and even managed to make the cake look somewhat presentable. Weeks later, though, I was still scratching my head over the incident. Why…

I can still see them. The tall, beautiful palm trees in my dream. Swaying in the wind, as if synchronized somehow. And the ground. Covered in a blanket of snow, even though the sun was shining brightly. It’s been seven years. Seven years since the dream came to me. I’ve analyzed it from every angle possible. But to this day, I’m still left wondering, Why exactly did I have that dream? I’ve been intuitive all my life. My father used to tell me I was like Radar from M*A*S*H. It’s just part of my personality. I spent six years as a Benedictine nun and have a background in social work. I’ve always been empathetic. Maybe it has something to do with my eyesight. My retinas were damaged when I was…

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.” –KAHLIL GIBRAN Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a poet, painter, philosopher and Christian mystic hailed for his writings on spiritual love. In 1895, his mother moved his Maronite Catholic family from Lebanon to the United States. Gibran found inspiration in religious and mystical traditions of both the West and Middle East. He’s best known for his 1923 book The Prophet, a collection of 26 poetic essays and fables written from the perspective of a wise man returning after a 12-year exile. The idea for the book—which explores parenting, death and marriage—came to Gibran in a dream. His romantic prose was ridiculed by some critics, but…

I walked down the dimly lit street, a bodega sign dancing in the distance. Not another soul in sight. Before I could make much sense of my surroundings, I heard it. Meow! A small cat at my feet, black fur shining. The cat jumped into my arms, and the streetlights went out. In the darkness, all I could see was the glint of her emerald eyes. I felt a strange peace come over me.… I woke up in bed with a start. What in the world? I’d never had a dream quite that vivid before. In fact, these days, anxiety dreams were far more common. I was stressed at work; things weren’t good with my boyfriend. Some nights, I barely slept. I’d tried everything I could to relieve my stress.…

Las Vegas, Nevada It’s been more than six years since Larry Giese, a retired Marine and a police officer, lost his 24-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Joseph Ryan “Goose” Giese, in Afghanistan. Ryan had been killed while on foot patrol, shortly before his unit was set to return to the States. But two prized possessions of Ryan’s managed to make their way back to his dad, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Last year, Ryan’s dog-eared Bible arrived in the mail. It had been sent by one of Ryan’s fellow Marines, who’d seen a soldier carrying it after Ryan’s death. Then, just before Father’s Day of this year, Larry received something else. One of Ryan’s dog tags. It was dented and discovered in Afghanistan far from where Ryan had died. The…

Why does God send a storm when a rain shower will do? That’s a question we asked Mastin Kipp, motivational speaker and author of the bestselling book The Daily Love: Growing Into Grace and the recently released Claim Your Power. In 2004, Mastin was 22, a Kansas native living the dream in Hollywood. Until it became a nightmare. A “divine storm” uprooted Mastin’s life and sent him down a remarkable path of self-discovery. We recently Skyped him to get some answers on why everything had to go wrong for things to go right.… What exactly is a divine storm? A divine storm is basically when everything in your life seems to go crazy. It’s a crisis you didn’t see coming. It could last a day, a week, a year, even…

My family and I were almost at the last exit on I-75 before the state line, driving home to Ohio after a lovely vacation in Florida, when the craving hit. Oranges. We needed to get some. Right now. “Pull over,” I told my husband, Phil. “Let’s get some oranges at the exit.” “Sweetheart, we can’t,” Phil protested. “We need to make time.” But for some reason, the urge only grew stronger. “No, Phil,” I said. “It has to be this exit.” Phil sighed and got off the highway. He pulled over at the first roadside fruit stand we saw. It was empty except for the fruit vendors and an older man and woman sampling pecans. I filled a bag with oranges. Before I could pay for them, the woman next…

He’d almost canceled the meeting. Trudging through the French countryside, accompanied by a World War I historian, Jeff Gusky had no idea what to expect. Jeff—a doctor, artist and explorer from Dallas, Texas—had been in France for six weeks, photographing remnants of World War I all along the Western Front, some of the bloodiest soil on earth. But internet research suggested there was nothing left to see here in the Picardy region. This was his last scheduled appointment of the trip. He was ready to get home. The historian led Jeff through a thicket of brush, then up and over a mound. “Here it is!” the man said excitedly, pointing to a large opening, maybe 70 feet wide, carved into a hillside. “Almost no one knows about this.…” Jeff nodded,…

Joan Luise Hill PALM BEACH, FLORIDA All eyes in the hospital waiting room were glued to a particularly raucous episode of The Jerry Springer Show on the TV mounted on the far wall. But I was a bundle of nerves. My 14-year-old son, David, was in the middle of open-heart surgery. It was a risky procedure. Even if the surgery was successful, David would be restricted to a sedentary lifestyle. There was another procedure—one that was even riskier yet had a potentially better outcome—but the surgeon was skeptical it could be done safely on David. If only I could know for sure that David would be okay. “Luise!” a voice suddenly boomed. I glanced around the waiting room. Who was calling me? Nobody knew my maiden name, Luise, here. “Luise!”…

On the easternmost tip of South Korea, near Homigot, a hand rises out of the ocean. To celebrate the Korean Peninsula’s first sunrise of the year 2000, the town commissioned a pair of hands—aka the Hands of Harmony—to be sculpted out of bronze. The right hand, which is 28 feet tall and 18 tons, is located in the East Sea. The left hand sits on land, more than 100 yards away. The palms face each other, symbolizing the concept of Sangsaeng, or “coexistence,” in the new millennium. People come from all over the world to admire and photograph the outstretched fingers, reaching for peace. Journey to places unknown at Guideposts.org/SecretSpaces…

Season Michelle Lewis To my dad, “on time” means a half hour early. So it was a big deal for him to be running late one morning this past January. He couldn’t find the shirt he’d planned on wearing to work. He eventually found it, but it was completely wrinkled. More time lost ironing! As if that wasn’t enough to throw him off his schedule, he had to stop at the bank before work. When he finally left the house, he was a whole 20 minutes late. He got to the bank—the place was full of cops. “It was a holdup,” one cop said. No one was injured, but the robber had made off with tons of cash. Dad was shocked. Had he been on time, he would’ve been there…