Ask, then Listen

Recently, my husband and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.  It had been a beautiful autumn equinox, and we had some of our wedding pictures taken at our city park.  On our anniversary, we went for a nostalgic walk through the park.  We saw another couple having their wedding pictures taken. 

As my husband and I reminisced, I began to miss my mother.  I remembered how she’d been at our wedding, how she had stayed well into the evening despite being in poor health and using a wheelchair because she didn’t have the stamina to stand or walk.  I looked up to the sky and asked for a sign from my mother. 

I waited and nothing happened, so in my mind, I shrugged and moved on.  Next on the agenda for our anniversary was a hike along the river.  The weather this fall was unseasonably warm, so it was a perfect opportunity to enjoy nature and all its colours.  I bring my camera along on most hikes to capture odd images and beauty.

At the end of the hike, I noticed an unusual amount of berries, in various colour combinations.  Blue berries with green leaves.  White berries with red leaves.  Red with green.  I turned to my husband and said, “Why are there so many berries?”  As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew.

And I laughed.  I asked for a sign from my mother, and it came through the berries.  My much-married mother had many names in her lifetime, but for the last three decades it was Berry.  More precisely, she was Grandma Berry.  And when I missed her, she came to me in all the glory of nature. 

It’s that easy.  I asked, and the answer came naturally.  I love when that happens.

Sometimes we make things complicated and we lose touch with being in the flow of life.  Other times, we ask, then listen, because we trust that we’ve been heard.