My dad’s birthday is 5 days after mine. He died a long time ago, on The Ides of March, 1998. My birthday came and went, and I was thinking, as I do every year, how his was coming now too.
On June first, I found a penny on the ground in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I briefly thought, ‘Pennies from Heaven‘, and then forgot about it.
Then next day, June second, was my father’s birthday. I was in my living room and glanced up to see what time it was. I noticed that the time was 9:20am, and then I noticed that the second hand on the clock was stopped. My first thought was: Damn it! It’s a pain in the ass to take that clock down and replace the battery! My second thought was: Oh. Maybe it’s Dad saying, ‘Hi, I’m here.’
So, I stood there and watched the clock. The second hand didn’t move. The time was stuck at 9:20am. ‘Okay, I get it. Hi, Dad,’ I thought. And then I forgot about that.
The next day, today, June third, I was out walking and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of red…a Cardinal! This is an excerpt from lilybirdsong.com about the significance of Cardinals:
‘A cardinal also signifies a loved one who has passed. It shows up when you need them the most. It’s their way of saying they are here, visiting.’
Wow, right? A trifecta of signs! Dad, you really outdid yourself this year! I did think to check the clock today and the time was exact. The second hand was working just fine. No loss of time for all of those minutes I stood there looking at the stopped clock.
Epilogue: As I was making notes for this blog post, this song came on as part of the webinar about intuition that I was listening to: I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash.
One of my father’s favorite songs. Hello? Validation. It’s sweet.
Karen Creamer
