The decision was an agonizing one. The result of my choice would change not only my life, but that of my husband, my son and other family and friends. I had been accepted to two medical schools, one perhaps slightly more prestigious than the other; one relatively near my home, one thousands of miles away. I was obsessed by the conflict, and it filled both my waking and sleeping hours.
One morning I awoke and walked to the porch to retrieve the paper. In a small planter next to the sidewalk sat a dove. I was no more than two feet away from it when I opened the door, yet it made no attempt to flee; instead it sat in the planter and looked at me. “Curious,” I thought. I went in, read the paper, went to work and continued to mull the choices in my head, still agonizing over them.
When I returned from work, there sat the bird, having not moved in the intervening ten hours, again watching me closely, but making no attempt to leave. “Surely the bird is hurt,” I thought, and brought it a bowl of water and some bread crumbs. I set the bowl near the bird, and it hopped onto the rim-not appearing at all disabled or injured-drank, and sat looking at me. Sensing no fear in the bird, I reached over and stroked its head. The bird did not flinch. “Weird,” I thought, and went into the house, and eventually to bed.
I dreamt, as had been usual, of choices, decisions, their effects. However, when I awoke my choice was clear, and I felt happy and confident that it was the right one. I made coffee, walked out to the porch to get the paper, and the bird-still there-looked at me, then easily rose and flew away.
Psalm 142: 1-3. I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord; I make supplications with my voice to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Thou didst know my path.” I will not say that the bird was a “messenger,” but certainly I will always associate his presence with the sense of God whispering His instructions to me. God always speaks to us. We need only listen.
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