Journaling Runs in the Family

Written on 2-20-22.

        B and I are on a date on a Sunday afternoon.  We grabbed some lunch and stopped at our favorite spot at Riverside Park.  It’s a spot by the…riverside.  I wanted some time to write today, so I suggested she grab a book.  She chose to download something, and here we are. 

It’s been nearly a month, my dear journal, and much has happened.  We chose to go up to Lakewood on the weekend of the Super Bowl.  B and I had Mom and Dad to ourselves for much of the weekend, but Curt, Bev, Carter, and Emily came over on Saturday.  And, we drove to pick up Barry on Sunday, and Joe and Tammy came with us, too.  I guess we didn’t have them to ourselves as much as I thought.  I dragged some boxes and photo albums upstairs to go through with Mom and Dad.  It was a hodgepodge of stuff.  We discovered baby books, and the funny part was mine had no information in it at all.  It had a bit of a shot record, but no name.  That’s typical of a third child, though.  Mom had hers and so did Dad, and they were mostly complete.  We found brochures and pamphlets for first-time parents, and the wrapping paper from Bev’s baby shower.  The biggest discovery were the photo albums that were passed on to my parents.  That was impressive, and Mom could tell about most of the people in there.  Dad saw pictures of his previous homes, too, and I saw...

some relatives I had never known about before.  It was fun, but it was exhausting!  It was four small sections, and it took over five hours going through it all, and I was doing the quick version.

We also found a journal that Grandma Ruth kept, and it detailed day-to-day activities, bills, and correspondence.  That was pretty fun to read.  I read it aloud to everyone on Saturday, and it made Mom cry a bit (of course).  When we were done, we got rid of very little.  Not even the baby shower wrapping paper would get thrown out, but it was good to sort some stuff into family member’s groups, one little group of mementos for each sibling or for Mom and Dad.  

Mom wanted to go through it later, being the procrastinator that she has always been, but I am betting she will not do it.  She had an opportunity to get rid of 4-H ribbons that Jim and John had won years ago, but she balked.  It was a rough thing to see, and B, at one point, went downstairs to escape it.  I guess we will throw them out…later.

No golf to report, so I will recount two fascinating experiences I recently had.  After we came back from Lakewood, I had a dream.  B and Danielle were with me in an elevated room, and a police officer was asking questions.  I turned to look in the corner of the room, and I saw a police officer squatting in the corner like he was filing stuff away in a file cabinet, but he didn’t have any papers.  He swiveled on his feet, still squatting, towards me, and it was my Uncle Ray!  I was shocked to see him, so I turned away to tell B and Danielle.  He looked vibrant and young.  Very healthy-looking.  

I said, “Look, it’s Police Officer Ray!” or something like that.  

When I turned to look again, he was gone, so I looked around the “office," but he was completely gone from the room.

Then I got that tingly feeling I have felt before.  It surrounded my body, and I felt no pain either.  It picked me up a bit (it felt that way) like I was put upon a small cushion of air.  It left me and came back briefly two more times.  I asked, “Ray?” and I got more of a tingling sensation when I asked that. 

Weird, huh?

I had a similar experience a few weeks before that one.  It didn’t happen three times, but only once.  I was laying on my left side in the morning, and I was coming out of sleep when my body was suddenly enveloped with the loving pins and needles feeling.  My feet were resting one on top of the other, and they felt as if they were one.  When it happened this first time, I felt as if someone was stroking or petting my side to give me comfort.  I remember the feeling of someone’s hand starting at my shoulder and going down to my legs and then picking up and starting at my shoulder again.

Something like this happened years ago when I was very young.  I remember helping Mrs. Pfaff with her groceries one day, and that started my relationship with her.  She was a lady of great faith.  After her husband passed, I would continue to help her by vacuuming or doing various chores.  I was laying on my stomach, and this time, the very first time I remember it happening, I felt as if I was struck by lightning right through my skull. After that, I got the tingly sensation all over my body.

I feel as if by writing about them I am spoiling the “secret,” but those things really happened.  I believe it is the Holy Spirit, or my Guardian Angel telling me those were good things I was doing, but I won’t really know until I die and go to heaven, God willing.