Stories and God Winks

**GuidePost Christmas Story-Lost on the Night Before Christmas**

Dear Reader:

This old GuidePost story popped up on my phone yesterday and it seemed so familiar for women and the challenges they face with aging and night driving.

How familiar is this phrase/ excuse heard by aging female friends …women start hearing their friends and themselves saying to night party invitations or get-togethers. ” I would love to attend but I don’t drive at night anymore.”

From the lack of today’s new technology directions for car drivers in this story…it must be dated several years back… because the author starts off saying” No GPS. No phone…. No one to help. Only a light.“

Apparently the author had accepted a Christmas Eve Celebration with close friends-had a great time singing carols and sipping eggnog.

She had stayed longer than she should have but had gotten caught up in the fun time with friends.

It was now around midnight and all was well until she got to the familiar freeway exit and saw a sign: Closed for Night Construction! Take Alternate Route!

Panicking she thought what alternate route? She only knew 55 Freeway… in growing anxiety she took the next exit… Big Mistake! She found herself in a deserted, empty parking lot. She needed a Christmas Miracle!

Suddenly a bright light shone on her-the Star of Bethlehem?

Then to her disappointment as she got closer … she discovered it was just street light on top of a pole. Still she felt herself drawn to it like a moth to a light bulb. Maybe there was a night watchman .

No night watchman but there was something that made her believe in Christmas miracles again.

Attached to the light pole was a sign:

55 Freeway: Straight Ahead.

The Way Back Home

…………………………………………………………..

I am still experiencing my own Christmas Miracles ( God Winks) as you see here!

**Two blooming White Amaryllises with three bulbs in the middle and four days to Christmas… will they all bloom in time? Exciting watching**… ???

Yesterday ( December 21-was Winter Solstice Day… longest night of year and shortest day! More light now and longer days… Yeah!

But… did you also know December 21 was also World Gratitude Day! My neighbor Ann and I decided to attend the Hot Chocolate Festival here and share and make new friendships with others… in gratitude for our families, friends and …feeling loved by so many of you readers who lifted me up during my darkest days!

New friends and hot hot chocolate-delicious!

I was the Santa Cup… filled with marshmallows and whipped cream!

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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