Small sign, ginormous implications

“Facts, my dear Sancho, are the enemy of truth.”—Miquel de Cervantes

The brain, as cool as it is, mainly serves as a reducing valve. It takes the overwhelming flood of information available and filters it down to a trickle. It’s efficient for survival, I suppose, but it screens out most of life’s wonderment.

That’s why my job, in my books and here on the blog, is to point out all the miracles, signs and blessings we tend to miss with our rational, utilitarian minds.

Take yesterday, for example. When driving the windy roads to my dad’s memorial at an outdoor venue in the Great Smoky Mountains, I nearly ran over a turtle.

Thankfully, I managed to swerve and not hit the poor fellow. But here’s why it was extremely significant for me.

When I was growing up in small towns, my dad often took me for “Oh look at that” drives out in the country. We frequently spotted horned toads and box turtles and, 70 percent of the time, we stopped, picked them up and took them home as pets.

In fact, my turtle, Pokey, after three weeks of winning the Saturday night Turtle Races in Ellsworth, Kansas, held in the IGA parking lot, had to be retired. Race officials deemed it just wasn’t fair to the other contestants.

Keep in mind, I haven’t run across a turtle in probably 30 years. But yesterday, on the way to Dad’s memorial, smack dab in the middle of the road, just like I remembered, was a box turtle.

Most people would shrug, call it a coincidence, but I know better.

ACIM Lesson 143 is a review reminding me that if I choose, miracles are all I’ll see.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Mjuses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.