Dear Reader:

I actually had my green 2007  Saturn Vue when Honey sent me this story about a green car story she saw in one of the mountain newspapers and knew I would love the article because I loved my “Vue” so much….I did then…and still do. Eleven years and still going!

The story was originally posted back in October of 2010 in the blog…the first year of it. By happenstance I discovered it again, a couple of days ago, and I remembered how much I loved that story Honey sent. So here we go….!

The Green Car” was originally titled “The Last Word” by Sandi Tomlin-Sutker, Editor of a local mountain paper. At the time she was in a  “testing” stage of life…she wanted evidence that there was Something or Someone in charge of the universe Who understood the pattern or secret of life. And this is what she discovered….

THE GREEN CAR

One day Sandi was driving into Asheville for a yoga class. It took about an half an hour to get there from her home…so she usually spent the time listening to music or thinking through the day’s activities on her daily “to-do” list. But for some reason that particular day… she started thinking about the idea that “we see what we expect to see, what we are focused on.”

She decided to test the theory…a green car passed her and she thought “Ok…a green car….I want to see dark green cars today.” So she began concentrating on this task at hand… but to no avail. Not one…how odd she thought…before the “contest” I was seeing an occasional one and now nothing. She felt strangely disappointed and then felt silly for feeling that way. Like a pouting child…she thought…so that’s it then…the universe is just arbitrary…and I have no connection to the universe in some deep and significant way. It’s all just a fairy tale..make-believe.” I am too insignificant to matter to the universe and my wishes.

But suddenly as she turned onto the street where the class was being held…looking for a parking space…there was a dark green car parked right in front of the first available space. Abruptly… her grandmother’s words of advice (that she had heard hundreds of times before her death) …rang out loud and clear: “Never give up…because it is just at that moment…that the tide will turn.”

Strangely… Sandi felt lighthearted and even found herself wanting to “skip” into the yoga class with sheer joy. She felt safe again…protected…like a child who has been lost and finds his parents in a crowded mall….loved unconditionally …she felt happiness!

And then it really started happening: Over the next several day… Sandi began seeing dark green cars all around her….while driving to Asheville two days later…she realized… startled… that there was a dark green car in front of her… behind  her and one passing her. “Okay, Okay…I get it God…You know my every wish…and You know I was testing You…and You know I needed you to acknowledge this lack of faith and sheer “silliness” in me…You took me seriously! Thank You!”

Suddenly Sandi started laughing for the sheer joy of feeling connected to the universe…she had to pull over…and then laughed louder as seven dark green cars passed her in a row.

She knew that some people would look at her strangely if she shared this story…considering it a bit too “New Age” or simply coincidental. But…she understands that they just aren’t in the same playing field right now…one day they will be…just not now…the busyiness of life has closed their eyes to God’s signs.

Sandi admitted… that perhaps her faith should be stronger and not need proof. But given the world we live in, given the trauma and chaos so many humans experience daily…she felt that this reassurance that there is a deeper story, purpose, and pattern to our lives is understood by our compassionate God. He reassures us just like  parents reassure a child that there isn’t a monster under the bed and they are right there watching and protecting him/her.

So Sandi says she will keep looking for green cars and see them as proof of a benevolent force, spirit, and source that is available to everyone who is open to it. It means literally letting God’s blessings flow into us…to be the people we are put on this earth to be. To follow the map of life signs…directing us back home.

She also believes that each of us can stop that miraculous flow by our ego’s refusal to accept or acknowledge it. We build walls around the daily “busyiness” to keep us looking inward…not outward.

Instead…she says in conclusion…tear down those walls of fear and cynicism and instead….look for “Green Cars”!

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So until tomorrow….I will just look out my front window this morning and (with a wink) say “Hi God…beautiful day isn’t it? Do you like my green car?”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Mollie has been keeping Rutledge filled with adventures this last week before school starts. She took Rutledge and Eloise to the Charleston Museum. Rutledge loved his history lessons…particularly dressing up like a colonial child and listening to the description of the time period. Eloise just liked Rutledge’s drawing. (Thank goodness both Eva Cate and Rutledge love history….social studies is Eva Cate’s favorite subject.) Now to get to work on the other three….! 🙂