A Message of Faith
by Kate Everson
Copyright 2011 Kate Everson
The number on the clock read 11:11.
Everywhere she went, Robena saw the same numbers over and over again. She might be buying something at the mall and there it was on her receipt: Change - $11.11.
Or she could just be coming home and glance at her watch: 11:11.
Once she even walked into a library and was looking for a book and guess what? The code on that title was 1111.
“What does it mean?” she asked.
Nobody knew. Oh, there were websites with people giving their opinion about it, since many others all over the world had been seeing the same thing. Random occurences of 11.11. But nobody really knew how or why those numbers kept coming up.
Of course she chose that number as her personal PIN on her debit card. She hoped it was a lucky number!
Robena laughed. Her life had not been particularly lucky so far. She had grown up in a poor family, worked her way through college and was now out in the world trying to make a living. It was tough in a big city like Toronto.
She walked up Yonge Street looking at all the clothing stores, wishing she could afford to buy any of those awesome items. Even a new pair of shoes would be nice.
“Not until payday,” she thought. “Maybe not even then… ”
But despite her lack of funds, Robena had a positive outlook on life. She knew that things would get better, and even if they didn’t she felt that she had enough of the essentials, all she really needed to get by. She had enough to eat, a roof over her head, a job, clothes to keep her warm in winter and a treat once a week if she dared go outside her tiny apartment into the night.
For Robena was not a particularly brave girl, despite her 23 years of life. She had experienced some rough times and was a little shy of strangers and kept mostly to herself. Once a week, she walked through High Park and enjoyed the piece of nature allowed in that big city. In summer, she sat by the pond and watched for frogs and turtles or birds building nests. It was a bit rough along the shoreline but she liked that.
“I get so tired of concrete and sidewalks,” she thought. “At least here is something natural.”
It was here that Robena first saw the Swamp Dragon. Or, at least, that’s what she called it. The deadfall of an old willow tree after a storm had created a face in its rough limbs that looked a bit like a dragon. And every time she went there, it seemed to be looking at her.
The eye was a rotted out hole in the wood and the face had a horn like a unicorn and the snout had its bark half ripped off. A rough dragon, for sure. And Robena did not know if it was fierce or friendly.
But around the same time, she started seeing 11:11 everywhere. Was it connected? Was the dragon trying to communicate with her?
Robena walked by the dragon face and kept going, but the eye seemed to follow her. She didn’t know what to make of it. Every time she went to the park she tried to connect.
Once she even spoke out loud to it, when no one was around.
“Well, hello!” she said bravely to the dead tree.
It did not respond.
“Oh well,” she thought. “It’s all a bit insane. Maybe I’m losing it.”
She drove to the nearest Tim Hortons and got a coffee and a donut in the Drive-Thru. She handed them a bill and they handed her back the exact change: $11.11.
“Now, I know I’m losing it,” she laughed.
Robena wanted to find out what this was all about. So she summoned all her courage and went down to the park when the sun was just setting. She made sure she didn’t attract any undesirables who like to hang around parks at night and mug people, but she put on her invisible cloak and passed right by. That was a little trick she had learned a few years ago out of necessity. When her father had been looking for someone to hit, she learned to become very small mentally, and he walked right by. It saved her many times.
So this time, she did it again. She imagined herself invisible. It worked. Nobody even looked at her.
Robena walked down to the pond and sat by the water. She walked right by the swamp dragon and gave it a wave. “Hi there,” she smiled. It seemed to like being spoken to. Why not? Nobody else noticed it.
She sat on the side of the pond and stared into the water. She knew the water had answers. It always did. And sunset was a magical time, when more things could be revealed to humans, if they dared listen.
Robena had always been a nature lover, linking into the sky and the water, the trees and the birds. It was like a piece of her soul that got expression in the world this way. For inside, she knew she was beautful, even though it didn’t show much.
When she looked at the water, she felt her own peace inside. Each ripple on the water reflected her inner being.
She sometimes saw little heads popping up out of the pond, turtles checking her out. And she often heard a splash from a frog jumping near the cattails and a fluttering of red-winged blackbirds.
“Imagine living here,” she thought, gazing into the water. “Imagine being in the water all the time, just swimming around.”
She stared at the water and felt like she could fall right in. Would it take her away to a magical kingdom? There she would not worry about money, or men, or what people said about her. Robena would be a changed being, free, and happy for the first time in her troubled life.
As she watched the circles on the water, she felt herself leaning forward, hypnotized by the motion. Suddenly, she was gone. She was under the water. And it was all she had ever hoped for.
“I am in the water,” she realized. “Am I drowning?”
But it didn’t seem to bother her. She was there with all the other water beings, flowing, so cool, so relaxed, so at peace. She did not need to breathe. She was a water sprite, and everything around her was flowing with her. There was no strife, no torn feelings, no hurt, no pain. It was like being in heaven or a watery world where only peace exists.
Then she knew. The numbers were everywhere. Little minnows – 1111. Reflections of wind on the surface of the water, seen from beneath – 1111. The dragon face leaning over her now, grinning at her with its dragon teeth – 1111.
Robena spread out her arms and legs and drifted silently beneath the blue pond. She was 1111. She was the beginning and she was the end. There was nothing else.
But then she had a worry, a secret fear, and it came over her like a big, dark cloud. She gasped for breath and shot up out of the water like a water spout into the air. For several minutes she lay there, weak, panting, water spilling out of her mouth, nose and ears. She was alive and she had to deal with it.
Robena looked back at the pond and could see a swamp dragon peering at her from the water. Its eyes did not blink, but seemed to stare and stare at her, in a way that made her wonder. Did it know her?
She felt it did. It must be part of the dragon lair here in the pond, each one watching her, and perhaps controlling her every move.
But she did not care. In fact, she welcomed it. This watery world seemed meant for her.
But where did she go from here? She needed answers. Something to link up all these questions and show the way.
The next day she watched a show on TV by a well-known Christian speaker, Joyce Meyer. She was talking about releasing faith. Then Robena got it. She needed to release her own faith hidden deep inside. When nothing else made sense, she had to just relax and let go. Let the Universe guide her.
She felt a deep sense of peace. There was no need to understand everything. Just relax and let it all unfold as it should. Release her faith.
She looked at the clock. It was now 12:12. She had passed the test and come to the conclusion. Faith was the way.
From that moment on,
Robena began to enjoy life a little more each day. When things got rough at work, she just released a little more faith from her limitless reservoir inside. It was enough to keep her going.
When Robena walked down to the pond she smiled at the dragons everywhere. They were her friends, there to guide her along the way. It was like they were just a hint of all the unseen friends she had in the inner worlds, helping her through life. She just had to have faith.
At work, Robena smiled more and worried less. When she got a promotion she thanked her swamp dragon, who seemed to take control even from his watery home.
“He does have a way of making things right,” she laughed.
At night, Robena went out and socialized more. She was stronger inside and that made her stronger on the outside. People felt it and were drawn to her. Some became very close friends. Others she let go, as they needed help she couldn’t give them. Each person had to find their own way in life, to choose their own path, to realize how deep their faith really was and how it would set them free.
One day, Robena found a stray dog by the pond. It didn’t have a collar, so she took it home and when no one claimed it, she kept it for a pet. The little dog, Sooky, was her new best friend. It didn’t like the dragons near the pond, but she took it there anyway, and once it climbed right up the dragon’s back.
“Don’t fall!” Robena called, worried. But then she smiled and relaxed. She had faith that had been released and she knew that whatever happened was in the hands of a higher power. The little dog jumped down and Robena picked it up in her arms.
“We’re going to be all right, my little friend,” she smiled. “We’re all right now.”
Three days later, the top blew off her neighbour’s house in a huge storm. Robena hurried to help and found her neighbour clinging to life at the bottom of a huge pile of rubble. “Help me,” he said weakly and Robena did what she could, calling 911 and comforting the old man until help arrived.
Sooky tried to help too, barking all around the house. That made more neighbours show up. When the old man was finally freed from the debris, he thanked Robena for being there with him. He said she saved his life.
“We are all one,” Robena answered. “To help someone else is like helping yourself. We are all part of the same planet, seeded in Love.”
He did not understand the words completely, but smiled a weak smile at her. “Thanks,” he said.
At that moment the sun burst out from behind a cloud and a rainbow appeared in the sky. It was a sign that all was well in the universe and that everything would be all right.
And the clock read 12:12. It was a message of Faith. Robena had just been on the edge of Glory with her 11:11 signs everywhere, and now she had released the faith that made her whole.
* * The End * *