Innehållsförteckning för Feb/Mar 2023 från Mysterious Ways

I joined the U.S. Navy in 1985. Though I’d struggled during boot camp with activities that required swimming, here I was on the Rogue River, with shipmates from my first duty station, Naval Facility Coos Head, Oregon, staking my life on a life jacket and small inflatable kayak. As I listened to the guide’s instructions, a menacing premonition nagged me. All of the Rogue River rapids except two fell into Class I, II and III difficulties. The more challenging sections were Rainie Falls, Class V, and Blossom Bar, Class IV. As soon as I started paddling toward Blossom Bar, my kayak slammed into the rocks, and I was thrown into the cold rapids. Wedged between rocks, I flailed my arms before I was sucked down deep into a gray-green abyss. I…

“Are you still planning to meet me in person?” Crystal Dawn stared at the words on her phone. They were from Remy Meyer, a guy she’d been messaging on a dating app for the past two weeks. Remy was from California but had recently moved to Indiana, where Crystal lived. At least that’s what he said. Crystal felt a strong connection to Remy. He was in recovery from years of drug addiction, as she was. He wanted to find a job and settle down. At least that’s what he said. Crystal trusted no one, especially herself. After all the self-destructive decisions she’d made in her life, all the men who’d lied, cheated and abused her, she wasn’t even sure why she was on a dating app. Or why she felt…

Glenna McKelvie MONTGOMERY, TEXAS I was at my mother’s house, sorting through her things. It was my birthday, but I was too sad to celebrate. Plus, there was so much to do. Mom had passed just two days earlier. I felt the loss deeply, even though Mom and I had had a complicated relationship. I was the youngest of nine. She’d told me she thought she was done having children when she got pregnant with me, and she’d hoped for a boy. Sometimes I wondered if I’d been a disappointment. Just keep cleaning, I told myself. I was going through the drawers of Mom’s nightstand when I found a white envelope with my name on it. I opened it. A birthday card! It was decorated with yellow tulips, my favorite…

Some three miles off the coast of Key Biscayne, 40 feet below the waves, lies a final resting place unlike any other: the Neptune Memorial Reef. Part art installation and part conservation project, the cremated remains of the deceased are mixed with cement to add onto this artificial reef. Metal plaques honor their names and memory, allowing divers to come pay their respects. Sprawling nearly an acre over the ocean floor, the reef’s structure was inspired by the lost city of Atlantis. Originally conceived by Gary Levine and designed by artist Kim Brandell, the fantastical dive site features sunken pillars, meandering roadways and statues of lions and other oddities. It’s also home to a wide array of marine life, both big and small, making it a popular scuba and snorkeling…

Before either of my two younger sisters married, they shared a house near a small rural farm area in Houston, Texas. Diane preferred doing housework, while Patricia agreed to take over the outdoor chores. At the time, Patricia worked and attended nursing school. She usually arrived home when it was already too dark to mow the lawn. Weekends were no better, and eventually the grass grew out of control. When Patricia finally got around to cutting it, the mower was useless. The long grass twisted into the blades with each push. She didn’t have a sickle or Weedwacker, but she did have a pair of scissors. She worked for hours, cutting the grass by hand. She called Diane at work near tears. “It’s going to take a miracle to cut…

Harley was more than a dog. Even my fiancé, Nick, knew how important our 13-year-old golden retriever was to the family. It wasn’t just her rambunctious nature that made everyone laugh. Harley took care of all of us in her way. She’d gotten me through a terrible depression in my twenties, cuddling me when I cried and giving a reason to get out of bed when I thought I couldn’t. She was my mom’s sous chef, tasting every dish first. In the garden, she followed at Mom’s heels, eating raspberries off the vine. But it was Dad Harley adored the most. Dad was Harley’s hero, her protector and her best friend. She even slept on the floor on his side of the bed. She had to be close, because it was…

This wasn’t the first surgery I’d undergone since my cancer diagnosis, but I worried it wouldn’t be my last. Back in July, I had gone to the doctor to ask about a strange, painful rash on my chest. Like a sunburn that wouldn’t heal. It turned out to be breast cancer. I was shocked. I had a lumpectomy at the end of August. I woke up post-op, my chest tightly bandaged. I thought the operation would be the end of it. But cancer cells had been discovered in the margins. That meant I needed an additional surgery, called a re-excision, to remove those cells. Tomorrow’s surgery was the re-excision. Would I get the all clear? Or would I have to endure more surgeries? Maybe even radiation? To distract myself from what…

Ann Kandis and her family were devastated when their cat, Noodles, disappeared from their farm in 2018. Ann searched everywhere, putting up fliers and posting on social media. But years passed with no sightings. Until Christmas Eve 2021. Ann’s brother-in-law had mentioned a woman who loved horses as much as Ann did. Ann looked her up online and found that their daughters had shown horses together. What a coincidence, Ann thought. But the real coincidence came next. Studying the woman’s Facebook page, Ann saw a cat that looked exactly like Noodles with one of the horses. A Facebook post from November 2018 confirmed Ann’s suspicions. “Does anybody know this cat?” The post went on say the cat was friendly and fixed, according to The Quad-City Times. Just like Noodles. Ann…

Atlanta, Georgia Tia Wimbush and Susan Ellis had worked together in the IT department at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for 10 years. In 2019, they grew close after realizing they had something in common: Both their husbands had kidney disease and needed a transplant. Finding a donor match via the transplant list wasn’t easy. As they discussed their frustrations and their husbands’ blood types, they realized Tia could be a potential match for Susan’s husband. And, incredibly, Susan could be a match for Tia’s. Blood type and antibody tests revealed the women were right. They were matches for each other’s husbands! Seven months after their fateful conversation, the four friends underwent surgery. Both transplants went well. “For us, it was the miracle of a kidney transplant that our husbands so…

In 2021, The New York Times reported that Israeli researchers had recently discovered dozens of Dead Sea Scroll fragments containing biblical texts dating back nearly 2,000 years. These were the first fragments unearthed from the Judean Desert in more than 60 years. In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd found the Dead Sea Scrolls inside clay jars in caves near the sea. They hold the earliest known copies of parts of almost every book of the Old Testament; the newly found fragments include verses from Zechariah and Nahum. The scrolls are among the most significant archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century. But questions abound. How did the manuscripts survive? And what is their origin? One theory has the Essenes, a breakaway Jewish sect, hiding them in the caves while fleeing Roman armies.…

The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, painting the water red and gold. I smiled, squeezing Steve’s hand in mine. The scene was breathtaking. Watching the sun-rise on the beach was the perfect way to start our honeymoon—our second honeymoon. Steve and I had been together for 24 years before we separated. At that point, divorce had seemed the only solution to resolving our differences. Though not everyone in my life felt that way. “I know you two will get back together,” one of my friends had said after the divorce papers were signed. “That will never happen,” I’d scoffed. Well, never say never! Three years after the divorce, our children wanted to throw me a big party for my fiftieth birthday. Of course they wanted to invite…

“God’s time is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; he gave me the strength in my limbs; he meant I should be free.”—HARRIET TUBMAN Harriet Tubman (c.1822–1913) was an African-American abolitionist and activist. Before she escaped from slavery, she suffered a head injury at the hands of an overseer. After that, Harriet began having daytime visions and vivid dreams, which she believed were from God. She grew in faith—a faith that would guide her for the rest of her life. Fellow abolitionist Thomas Garrett once said of her, “I never met with any person, of any color, who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul.” Harriet used spirituals as coded messages to warn fellow travelers on the Underground Railroad of…