I met a young couple at the hot springs a couple weeks ago. There are several pools and I hopped in the first one I came to as it was so cold coming out of the locker room. As I am wont to do, I struck up a conversation and within moments, the young man remarked on my energy. He said there was a certain “light” about me that radiated. I replied that it didn’t come from me…it was God within that shined through me. I only have two jobs…love God and love people. If I do those two things, everything else pretty much works itself out. And, if I’m doing those two things correctly, it shows.

I was so impressed by these young people, I felt compelled to exchange contact information and within a day or two, received a text from my new friend, Hailey Nicole, asking if I’d like to get together before I head back to West Virginia. We agreed to meet for lunch. I met her at PF Chang’s yesterday. Hailey has an interesting story. She had a brain stem stroke a few years ago when she lived in London. Her heart stopped. Her breathing stopped. She woke up from a coma after a week with her mother by her side. She had visual disturbances and the entire left side was affected. Thankfully, the plasticity of the brain allowed her to heal and you would be hard pressed to know she had a stroke by looking at her.

Haley was different though. She had trouble with words. She forgot them. She mixed them up. And if she looks at numbers, such as a price, she only sees the last two. That’s ok if something is $99. It’s a whole different ball of wax if it’s $999. So she has to look, then look again before she buys something online. She had a tendency to run late. It took her forever to do things. She nicknamed this new persona…Agnes. In her efforts to diffuse a scary situation, she told people a crazed old woman named Agnes had moved into her body. She was confused and embarrassed. Once she had improved as much as she was likely to, she realized she needed to learn how to live with this alter ego she had created. Thus, her blog Embracing Agnes was born. (https://www.facebook.com/Embracing-Agnes-274409786025148/) she had only written a handful of blog posts when life got in the way. But after visiting with me at the pool, she felt compelled to start writing again.

You never know when your light is going to affect another person. When I posted the link to the Girl Camper Podcast the other day, I alerted my friend Diane Smith and told her she and our friend, Jan Hodson, played a big roll. She shared the podcast with her family and friends with the same sentiment….you never know who you might impact with the light of God shining through you. The third piece of this puzzle was connecting Haley with Kimberly Paul, the gal who interviewed me for her new podcast that debuts next month. I felt Haley’s story would be perfect for Kimberly’s show.

Synchronicity. I love how things fit together. I love how I’m drawn to be in the right place at the right time. I’m just part of the wind. ❤️

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:16‬ ‭NIV‬‬