I was never given to hard core faith or going to church since I was 12 and got confirmed. After that I started staying home on Sundays.
Mom and Dad would toddle off every Sunday like clockwork to do their Christian duty at church.Dad sang in the choir and Mom was in every garden Club, or womens Circle that ever was. She was always willing to take a meal to a sick member or visit someone in the hospital.
She was just plain good. Big heart my Mom had. Never made a person able to say a bad word about her ever.
She got Cancer of the cervix several years ago. Hospice was her only option.
As I would visit my Sisters home and talk with Mom I realized she was dying.
Silly right? One day it just hit me. I was holding her hand as she lay in bed. looking up her ashen skin cool to the touch. Her bright hazel eyes had gone dim and grey. She held me hand and said to me "I've always loved hummingbirds.And when I am gone if I have a choice...I'll come back as one for a while."
I stroked her hair back from her face and told her thank you for sharing that with me. I never knew you like Hummingbirds.
I finished my visit soon after.
She turned for the worse a few days later and she went to sleep and died a few days after that.

I loved my Mother.

I was born on September 9th 1957 at 9:09 a.m. Mom always liked that unique sequence of 9's and so did I .She would ALWAYS wish me a Happy Birthday on 9-9 at 9:09 a.m. my entire adult life. At home,work, on the road traveling it didn't matter. She'd call like clockwork and sing me Happy Birthday.
Little things mean everything.
She died on April 6th and was buried on the 9th. My 9.
On that September 9th at about 8:55 I came from the bedroom into the living room of our home tears streaming down my face.
I realized that Mom wouldn't be calling ever again.
I cried in my wifes arms till my face hurt from the contortions of pain.
As the minuets went by she kept reassuring me that Mom was watching down on me and that I would always be her baby boy.As I saw it turn into 9:09 on the cable box I began to sob uncontrollably. My wife held me and wept too.
All of the sudden she screamed OH GOD!
I said what through my wrenching pain. Look was all she could say.
There in front of our living room window on September 9th at 9:09 a.m. was a
Hummingbird.
Not just a hummingbird,but the most beautiful Hummingbird I had ever seen in my life.It was bright green with a bright red chest. It floated in front of the window as if held on a string.
Motionless she watched us through the window.
As if from God himself my mouth opened and I screamed Mom.
Shaking from head to toe and in hysterics I began to praise God and thank Jesus for sending my Mother to me one more time. I praised God and Jesus over and over again. I called to my mother and told her we were alright, and I loved her so much. I thanked her over and over again for loving me and being my mother.
After floating in mid air for all my thanks to be given,she finally turned and flew straight up and away.

It was now 9:12 a.m.
She hovered there for three minuets.
It seemed like an hour.
I was never so emotionally drained ever before in my life.

We went to a local church that Sunday.
My wife Sherry and I now teach the 7th and 8th grade class for 5 years now. We are also the custodians there. And have found that there is more to this life of ours than we can see with our eyes.

There is a whole world we will only ever see with our hearts.

I have taken the name Prince of Peace on all knife forums as my way to bring some notice and thought to the one who opened my eyes when they were shut. And to his Father who had the keys to my heart and opened up a new world to me.

Eyes and heart wide open,

Peace.

Awesome.Very glad I got to read this.

I away knew I'd get a chance to tell this story some day. Thanks for starting this thead Knifeparty!

In 2000 I went to Tom Brown's Tracker school. I was really into Native American philosophy and The Tracker School really seamed to reinforce a lot of what I had read and learned up to that point. It may seam crazy to some but Tom's books and teachings had a very deep and lasting affect on me. Not too long after coming back from Tom's school my father became very ill and had to be hospitalized and required very serious surgery, things did not look too good. He was in intensive care and I tried to spend as much time as I could at the hospital, but I still had to work. The hospital was only about a mile away from my work so sometimes I would walk to the hospital on an extended lunch break. On one particularly nice early fall day I decided to make the walk to the hospital. I was about 1/3 to 1/2 way there when I was caught in a very unexpected and pretty intence rain shower. I was not prepaired having only warn a light wind breaker. But instead of finding cover, I was stuck with the most profound feeling of what I can only explain as an almost spiritual feeling. That may seam goofy but we've all had experiences like this at one time or another. So instead of getting wet I felt the rain on a much deeper level and began to laugh uncontrolably it must have looked quite strange to the people and cars that I passed. I made it to the hospital completely drenched but with the most profound feeling of comfort. At that point I knew my dad would be OK and that no matter what happened everthing would always find a way of working out. That walk had the most profound effect on me that has lasted to this very day i will never be the same. It's funny too because my father had always had a say that I grew up hearing, "some people just don't have since enough to get in out of the rain". From that day forward I had a new saying, "some people feel the rain, others just get wet". Now I find myself from time to time drawn to a good rain shower. There's just nothing like getting out and playing in the rain.

So anyway, shortly after that experience I needed a screen name for something and the answer was clear as a bell to me. You might even say the name picked me instead of me picking the name.

You might even say that "Rainwalker" has become my given name. It's not what my wife and kids call me but it's become a very close second to my birth name.

Sorry if this story seams too goofy or too sappy, I've alway wanted the opportunity to tell it though and I hope it has given some food for thought. Sometimes the most profound things can happen in the most mundane circumstances, sometimes they're obvious sometime their not.

So that's the story of my name hope you enjoyed it... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />