In one sense it was truly a surprise that the children appeared on the trail, but upon further reflection it was not. The story as it unfolds happened this way.
I was walking a return route to the parking lot where I had parked my car almost 2 hours earlier. During the time leading up to the surprise visit with children, I had been in a place of meditation and prayer. I had found a quiet place to sit overlooking the lake. I was surrounded by pine trees; a few fishermen in boats drifted on the breezy lake; birds flew nearby skimming the water looking for a meal. The scene was beautiful in its quietness, lending itself to my desire to pray and mediate on the goodness and presence of love, the love of our Creator and our Heavenly Parent, our Divine Father, our Divine Mother. During this time in mediation and prayer, among many things considered I expressed a desire for a new visitation of love.
Love came to me in a multitude of ways – in an awareness of my environment, the beauty of it, the liveliness of the breeze causing small waves on the surface of the lake, the warmth of sunshine bathing my body, a fish momentarily leaping from the water, birds flying about, the clear blue sky, quiet sounds the breeze created through surrounding trees. Love also came as I wrote in my journal, searching for words to express what I was experiencing. Love came in feelings of gratefulness washing through my soul.
I am surrounded by beauty. I am surrounded by love’s presence that I cannot see but only feel. I breathe in fresh air … but more so, I breathe in love that is present, the divine love present and waiting to fill my soul. I ask and I yearn and long for this love, and love arrives, for it is nearer to me than the wind I feel blowing my hair and the paper I am trying to write upon. I am grateful for the scene that I am part of – a man sitting by a lake observing his 78th birthday, but a man fully aware that God’s love surrounds and envelopes each and every one of His beloved children.
Awareness of the presence of love is the greatest gift, and on my 78th birthday this gift of awareness of the presence of love is being renewed. My gratefulness overflows, and I feel at-one with all, with the lake and blue sky and pine trees and earth and even or especially the few people I see walking about the lake and the fishermen in their boats, yes, even with the birds and the fish and things I cannot see, even angels ministering to me.
Thus, while I was walking the return trail to my car and when I saw the four happy children, their presence was an additional gift of love to me. They were an outward and visible sign of the presence of love that I had already been experiencing. The joyful sound of their voices and the sparkle within their eyes spoke heavenly things to me.
If we will allow it, the presence of love can be experienced daily. In fact, it is possible to maintain the awareness of love present in each moment of our life. This is my goal and the ideal I endeavor to experience.
– Joseph