Spirit Guides

The Indians used to talk about having spiritual guides, at least those I saw on television when I was a young child. I wondered if it they were dead relatives appearing to a brave's aid when needed. As I've grown, I see the world and television much differently, but that is for another blog post. Yesterday, I had my sights set on going to the Virginia Beach and the surrounding area to pepper the locals with notices that I would be doing a talk next Saturday. The night before, my wife informed me that the battery in our van died. Sometimes one of the kids turns on one of there overhead lights and leaves it on. This in turn drains the battery. How do I know that? Guess. I woke up early Friday morning eager to get to my destination, but my lower back was in major pain. Odd? It felt fine yesterday and I couldn't remember doing anything to have caused such a back ache. It really hurt, but it wasn't enough to stop me from going about my day-to-days. The pain just made moving around and driving in a car for long periods of time to be more of a challenge. When I walked out to take a good look at the van, I noticed it was cloudy overhead, the weatherman said it looks like some rain today.
I told my wife that I was going to postpone my trip to Virginia Beach today. Instead, I would get her a battery in Richmond and pick up a few things, go to a library or two and check out the bookstores to see if they needed to order more of my books. I got a few on the list done, but not everything. She wanted to know why I had cancelled (postponed) my trip. She knows that next week is going to be busy for me. I told her that I think my spirit guides were telling me something. They were letting me know that today was not a good day to go to Tidewater. If it was just the car battery, I would have gone, if it was the weather, and the car battery I may or may not have gone. The car battery, the weather and my aching back? No way. Am I superstitious? That depends on what the term means to you. Do I believe in black cats (I have one) or spilling salt? No. Do I believe that we have spiritual guides who help us when we need it now and again? If we are aware and accepting that they are real and exist, then - Absolutely. Coming back home from my errands in Richmond I was only a couple of miles from my exit when traffic came to a dead halt. As we inched along the interstate I looked over the side to see a car in the ditch severely damaged and I saw an ambulance taking someone away. I wondered if his/her spiritual guides were trying to talk to her this morning. Was it just an accident? I don't believe in accidents, so why did she create this situation? Could it have been avoided or was it something she needed to learn? Did she ignore her spiritual guides when they said (to quote John Fogerty - I see a bad moon rising, I see trouble on the way, looks like we're in for nasty weather. Bad times, don't go out today...?) I apologize to Mr. Folerty if the words aren't exact since I am pulling them from memory. Moving on, so do we get so focused on our days goals that we tend to ignore what is going around us, even if it could perhaps save us from some future tragedy? Like I said earlier, I have a black cat. She is pretty attentive to where I am most of the time. It is a challenge to sneak up on her, unless..unless she is stalking something. Her full attention is on her prey and that is my chance. I sneak up and scare her, just to watch her jump. She turns around and looks at me with the "where did you come from?" look. It's easy to get too focused, but unlike my little kitty, we can recognize it and make ourselves become more aware of our surroundings even when we get focused on a task. My poor cat will never catch on, and that will bring her a lot of surprises and me a few good laughs. Today, my back feels great, the weather is clear and our van now starts on the first try. Maybe nothing would have happened on my way to Virginia Beach. I will never know if my reasons were valid or a little superstitious, but I do know that Friday was a good day and that is all that really matters. Tomorrow perhaps we will talk more about our spiritual guides. Where are they? How do we elicit their help? Are the spirits that have been here before, are they human? When do we know its them and not simply happenstance?

So when do I go to Virginia Beach? I will set my sights once more on Tidewater this Monday - should the fates (my spiritual guides) allow.

Nameste'

Barry