Message From God

After months and months of wearing layers which barely warmed my bones, I went out into the 60 degree day of sunshine and sat in the springtime air today. Birds were tweeting, a flicker was rat-a-tat-tatting on one of our big cottonwoods, and Buddha the dog was sunning himself at my side. I wanted to meditate in my backyard with the sun on my back. I settled into my camping chair, closed my eyes, and started counting my breaths.

It wasn't long before some scary-sounding sirens filled the air. The kind of sirens that say something like, "The end of the world is here, but we have no advice on what to do about it. Still, feel the urgency with which we are shouting at you!"

I checked in with myself to see if I had any information about action I could take. I decided that sitting outside was best. That way, if the bomb comes, maybe I'll be hit directly instead of having to suffer a long, drawn out death. (Remember I'm meditating here - and yet, the stories abound.) There were times during the loud blitz that I just went into the sound and there were times when I thought about the fact that I don't think anyone knows what to do when the sirens come on, so how effective is this system? After awhile, a voice called out from the skies. It sounded like God, and she told us mortals that this eardrum-shattering sound was only a test.

Dear God, it might have been nice to have heard that at the beginning of the alert instead of the end of it!