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Something Unexpected

Regardless of your faith or epistemology, have you ever had an experience you couldn’t explain? Call it coincidence or divine intervention, but something or someone who saved you at the moment you needed saving?

Let me give you example.

We were driving the 750 miles back to Lawrence after visiting relatives in Michigan this summer. Several hours later, driving south on highway 35 at night I began to have difficulty breathing. Nothing serious at first, but as the miles ticked by I realized that I was beginning to get less and less oxygen into my lungs. I have asthma, but I haven’t had an attack in years. I wasn’t panicked yet, but I began to feel as if a wet blanket were laid over my lungs causing me to labor more and more to get air.

I rolled down the window and took a deep breath, but it didn’t help. After another 30 miles on a desolate highway south of Des Moines, I told my wife that we would need to find someplace to stop and fairly soon. As my throat constricted I felt the panic rise inside me. I stopped the car and stood on the roadside trying to catch my breath. She said she was going to call 911, but I told her to wait a minute to see if the outside air would help.

Now here’s the miracle: it was 11:30 P.M on a Sunday evening and we had been driving over 600 miles. I was hopeful we might find an emergency center in Kansas City, but that was over an hour away and I wasn’t sure what condition I would arrive in. As I stood outside deciding what to do I looked up and saw a sign for Cameron that I hadn’t noticed before. From where I stood, the wind was blowing a tree branch away from the sign so I could read it for a moment until the branch swayed back to occlude the sign. If was as if the branch were swaying back and forth to be noticed.

It was only a few miles away so we decided to drive there to seek help, and if none were available, to call 911 if I got worse.

Within a mile of driving, however, we saw a well-lighted exit sign for Cameron Regional Medical Center. It was a sprawling oasis amidst a dark, rolling prairie and just a stone’s throw off the highway. I was rushed in, given a mixture of gases to inhale, and two shots to reduce the inflammation. Soon we were on our way and both amazed at the convenience and sudden appearance of the facility, which seemed to materialize out of nowhere only moments after we had made our emergency decision.

There have been other examples of intervention that have happened to people I know and love, but none so recent and personal as this life-giving breath was to me.

How about you?

By David Lignell

September 27, 2009

The Lignell Zone

From the Citizen Journalism Academy

Discussion

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27 September 2009
at 10:07 p.m.

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RoeDapple (Anonymous) says…

While preparing to go to work one morning in 1991, I suddenly felt this overwhelming sense of “something bad” would happen at work that day. I immediately felt a sense of complete calm, and it seemed a voice told me,”Go, they will need you.”

Later that afternoon the woman loading the truck in the next bay started screaming. The hydraulic dock plate was coming down with her leg between it and the back door of the truck. The only thing I could do was hit the switch to raise it back up, Which had to be extremely painful for her. While I stood there keeping the plate from coming back down I looked to see if anyone was coming to help. Several of the employees there were standing just watching. Remembering my “message” from that morning, I started yelling for someone to move the truck, another to call 911 and others to bring a moving blanket for her to lay on while the ambulance was on it's way. The paramedic said the leg would have been cut off if the ramp had not been stopped. This was very unnerving for me for a very long time.
27 September 2009
at 10:54 p.m.

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liggyon (David Lignell) says…

Powerful story, Roe. Thanks for sharing it.
27 September 2009
at 11:01 p.m.

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justbegintowrite (Ronda Miller) says…

Glad you had the intervention when you did, David! And, Roe, I hope if I ever have any accidents you are around - what a miracle for the woman that you were there that day.

I have an experience that is similar in some respects. We lost a niece three years ago (she was twenty five and like my own little girl) and we were extremely close. Normally speaking I have had horrible experiences with letting someone go and not being able to discuss the loss. In her case, it is if everything negative I ever felt about death because a positive. I attribute many things that have happened in my son's life, my daughter's life, and my own to her guiding hand. There are times I have felt her presence very strongly. Just tonight I heard her name and she intervened in a most unusual way. She has truly become the guardian angel for my family.

I know we've all heard of a “sixth” sense, but I believe there are also the seventh, eighth, ninth (well, you get the picture). Mankind is clueless when it comes to space exploration - the breath, the depth, and even more so when it comes to the capabilities of the human mind and spirit.
28 September 2009
at 7:40 p.m.

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liggyon (David Lignell) says…

Hi Ronda…so sorry to hear about your niece. So very young to be passing on, though it sounds like her spirit has been a wonderful inspiration on you and your family. I understand about feeling someone's presence strongly. I believe we are guided in life to make good choices…if we only stop and listen carefully to hear the quiet voice among the din.