TERRY MOSHER
There was a question on Facebook as to what I meant by signpost. So I guess I have to explain myself.
I believe if you are aware of yourself and your surroundings on a constant basis you will discover signs that will help you in your journey here on Earth. Yes, I believe deeply that we are all on our own spiritual journey that we are unaware of, yet if we deviated from it we will feel somewhat uncomfortable and not really know why.
Maybe for 30 years I was off my journey’s path and it took for the sudden death of our first grandchild to jolt me back on it. Those kinds of things are reality checks, and are what I call signposts. Somebody up there, wherever you think up there is, was telling me (us) something.
I got the message.
Signposts don’t have to be so drastic or so tragic. They can be such a small thing as passing up the chance to give money to a homeless person. Most of us pass on that chance, likely thinking if we give we are contributing to something – like drink – that has pushed that person into being homeless.
One day I was walking from the Seattle ferry terminal to the Kingdome for another Mariner game (I was covering for the old Bremerton Sun) and as I neared the press entrance I passed a homeless man. I continued on my walk but as I passed him I got this awful feeling that I was being tested to see what kind of compassion I had.
The feeling overcame me so heavily that I turned around, determined to give him some money. This decision took less than a minute, but as I turned around and started back the man had disappeared. He could not have disappeared just like that and I took it as a signpost, and I failed miserably to recognize it and to give.
David, one of my many nephews, two years had the tragic news delivered to him at work that his longtime sweetheart and wife had suddenly died. David and Patty had just moved from Memphis to Oklahoma and purchased a house. She went to get the keys from the realtor after driving in from Memphis and as she arrived back at the house keeled over and died of a heart attack.
A day later he and his brother Greg, who had flown in from Illinois to be with him, were driving from Oklahoma back to Memphis to take care of the funeral arrangements when they stopped at a fast-foot place to grab something to eat.
As David waited in line a woman walked by, put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, everything will be all right.” David was stunned and didn’t immediately react. He was still in shock from Patty’s death and it took him a few seconds, but when he looked around to thank the woman and she had disappeared.
Poof, just like that, she was gone. She disappeared just as my homeless man disappeared. Who was the woman? My guess is that she was a signpost. She came as an angel from Patty to tell David things would be fine.
If you have read some of the stuff I have written over the years, you know that I have had experiences that are not of this world. Somebody, for example, telling me when I was nine years old that I would marry Mary.
Eighteen years later I did.
It was a signpost.
Signpost don’t have to be big things or tragic occurrences, they can be very small, but if you are tuned in you will know them when they come. I don’t know how many times I have been thinking of a word to use for a story and I quite can’t come up with it. I might be driving somewhere and all of a sudden I will hear the word I want be used on the radio. Other times I will appear to me while reading something.
I recognize them as signpost. Somebody is helping me.
My brother Ronnie was driving a tour bus in retirement from teaching and coaching and one late night he heard “hit the brakes.” He immediately did and narrowly avoided crashing head on into a stalled 18-wheeler as he came around a curve.
A signpost. Somebody was looking out for him. Maybe his guardian angel?
If you are somewhere and are worried about something, often if you listen closely you might hear advice that will take away that worry.
I had someone tell me something on the phone that led to my spiritual awakening in the months after the death of our granddaughter. The person swears she said nothing like what I heard, but I heard it and it helped me climb back on the spiritual path that I had been off for so many years.
We are not alone in this world. God is with us and there is help if you are willing to listen to and look around you. My advice to myself is to keep my ears and eyes tuned into my surroundings because I’m never sure when a signpost will suddenly arrive. If you don’t tune in you will miss them and I try not to miss them.
I’m sure you and many others have had signpost signals. I don’t think I’m the only one who receives them. Hopefully, you have been helped by them.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.