Sasee Magazine

It wasn’t just another day at the beach; no way. It was a day of unusual occurrences, not like the Twilight Zone or anything that bizarre, but more like messages that touched my heart: Visual images that moved me as if someone was speaking directly to me.

Every step I took that day opened a new door to see the beauty that was all around me, but I never saw it quite like this. Perhaps it was the series of books I had just finished that my sister, Donna, gave me for Mother’s Day; When God Winks and When God Winks at You, about the power of coincidences that guide your life, by SQuire Rushnell. These books feature heart-tugging stories that prove there are no coincidences, no serendipitous situations and no happen-stance.

Everything put in front of us is there for a reason.

God speaks to us everyday. We just have to listen.

As a television talk show host and producer, I have been blessed with the gift of gab, but I’ve also taken pride in my listening skills. Let’s face it, when my guests talk, I have to listen, so I know what question to ask them next.

And when friends need a helpful ear, I am always there to listen, and give advice, even when they didn’t ask for it! However, on this day, it was all about listening with my EYES, not with my ears.

Rarely do I get to go down to the beach to eat lunch, but on this day I went to TCBY, ordered my favorite chocolate yogurt and headed towards a little seating area near the shore. The dolphins were schooling, and that in itself was simply amazing to watch as they performed their rhythmic water ballet. Just as I was settling into the scene, I overheard voices, and saw a man and a woman about my age coaxing a very elderly woman, step by step, down the wooden boardwalk.

As they approached, I said hello and asked them where they were from. “Missouri,” the younger woman said. “This is the first time my mother has ever seen the ocean, and we are here celebrating her ninetieth birthday.”

“Happy Birthday,” I said, as they helped the hunched over, arthritic woman towards the beach. Her face seemed to lighten as she looked at the breaking waves upon the sand, and I actually think she stood up straighter as they continued to hold her arms and move slowly into the surf.

Giggles, like that of children in a playground, could be heard as all three of them bent down to touch the ankle deep water. I had witnessed this scene so many times over the years, with families introducing their little ones to the mysteries of the tides, but it never touched me like this, knowing that, in all of her years, the elderly woman’s dream of seeing the ocean before she died, had finally come true.

Thank you God, I said to myself, for sending me to this very spot, at this moment in time, to see such beauty.

Later that evening, my husband wanted to go to a movie, so we arrived an hour early to get our tickets before the line became a mile long. Meanwhile, we walked over to the dancing fountain nearby to watch the children run through the unpredictable bursts of water, which is always the best free show in town.

Some parents had obviously come prepared by having their children in their swimsuits. Others simply took off their kid’s shoes and let them do whatever came naturally.

Approaching nearby was a family with two little boys, one about eight years-old, able bodied and full of zest, and another about twelve years old, with Cerebral Palsy, in a wheelchair. They watched for a moment, and the younger boy begged his parents to let him play in the fountain, even though they had not come prepared with swimsuit and towel. As he kicked off his shoes and joined the others, he dodged the dancing waters and flirted with the refreshing sprinklers. It took me back to when I was a child, in the dead heat of the city, and the thrill of running through the fire hydrants when they were turned on for the amusement, and cooling off, of the neighborhood kids.

But then something happened that snapped me back to reality. The little boy with Cerebral Palsy started to roar.

Yes, really roar. It sounded like a lion in heat. All who watched knew he was mad. All of us, without ever knowing him or seeing him before, knew what he wanted. He wanted so desperately to get out of that wheelchair and go play with all the other kids and be with his brother. Yet, we could all see that he could not walk, his legs were deformed, and he was strapped into his rolling seat so his body could not slide out. But what happened next is something I will never forget. His parents unstrapped him, took off his sneakers and put him on the ground. Watching that child crawl and drag his fragile body into the fountain area brought tears to everyone. Hearing his roars turn to giggles, and giggles into laughter, became the most beautiful sound filling the air.

Maybe for once in this little boy’s life, he was able to be just like all the other kids. This youngster, who would never play football or basketball or soccer, became an equal, a peer with all the others in that fountain.

Crowds gathered and there were more cheeks stained with tears. No one, however, was crying more than the parents of those two little boys. So what if it meant the kids were going to have to ride home with wet clothes? So what if it cut into their original shopping plans?

For this family, and all those who witnessed this Norman Rockwell-like scene, we know we were given a gift, a WINK from God. A life-changing moment that wasn’t just a coincidence, serendipitous or happen-stance, but rather a gift of the heart that must be shared with others like I have just shared with you.

These things happen in our lives everyday, and they happen for a reason. They are God’s way of winking at us, and the way we react to these epiphanies is our way of winking back at God.

My wish for you in this very blessed season is that your heart will be filled with blessings and WINKS. LISTENING with your EYES will help you do just that.