Well, this morning I had planned to write a piece about being a suicide survivor, and I will plan to do that in the future, but I just had an interesting experience I want to share.
It’s a little after 6 a.m., and I just finished my morning workout. I grabbed my laptop from upstairs and came back downstairs to write my blog entry for today. Since yesterday I have had an idea of what I wanted to write about, and I was afraid it wasn’t going to be all that upbeat. Not that it had to be, but I do like to be positive when I can.
I had barely sat down, when all of the sudden I hear a rooster crowing and a “Rise and Shine!” – this immediately gets my attention, and I start hearing other noises. I figure out that it is coming from one of my son’s new toys that he got from my brother’s family over the weekend for Christmas. For some reason, it seems to be making sounds from the toy on its own! Needless to say, in the silence of the morning I was a little spooked. I noticed that the sound for the toy was turned on, so I did turn it off and the noises stopped. I have no idea if the sound had been turned off before we went to bed last night or not.
Now, I’m sitting here trying to think of a rational reason as to why that happened – if the toy is left on, is there some internal clock that has it make noise every so often? Did I bump the toy or make enough movement that the sound came on? There might be other explanations, but none of these seem all that likely to me right now.
I decided right away that even if there was a great explanation, I didn’t have it. To me, I think this was a sign from my dad. It seems just like him to start out with me hearing a rooster crowing and a “Rise and Shine!” from this toy. I can see him laughing at my confusion, and it is funny. I also think he sensed some of the heaviness in my heart this morning and thought I could use a laugh.
You may read this and think I am off the wall. That’s ok. You weren’t here to have the experience. It doesn’t really matter, though, because even though it was weird I am getting some comfort out of the experience. I am already looking at my day in a better mood, too, and there’s no harm in that. Thanks Dad – I will always love you no matter where you are.