Sacred ground can be so many things. Mine is water. That's where I first met G_d at 12 when I was drowning at the bottom of the American River. I'd screamed out all my air when I found myself pulled down into all this algae under a boulder. My body no longer was moving, but my life jacket slowly pulled me upward to the light. I felt my soul stretch out to it ahead of my body. That light gave me hope that I'd breathe again.
When I breached the surface, I gasped desperately for air and was again able to move my body. Once I reached dry ground, I noticed that it was a cloudy day. That light wasn't the sun as I thought. It was G_d.
We had an understanding that day that He wasn't going to let me die any time soon, because there was something that I was going to do for Him. So I started taking risks that normal people wouldn't take. Cats would be jealous with all my lives. I guess being buried in a snow cave was one of the craziest near deaths, but my mountaineering teacher finally found our cave entrance after numerous digs and liberated us to the air again.
I was just telling a friend about being given a sign of fish while kayak fishing in the La Jolla Cove. That sign told me that I wasn't going to die like the doctors thought from this tumor that had grown much too quickly inside of me.
My favorite time that G_d loved me on the water was right after a great white shark attack in Solana Beach. I stayed off the ocean for a few days, but I had to kayak. So as I was driving to the beach to launch my kayak, I asked G_d to keep me safe. As I paddled north a large pod of dolphins came and swam all around me for an hour. Dolphins attack great white sharks, so I had body guards of the sea! When I turned around a different pod of dolphins joined me on my way back. It was remarkable enough that I connected with one pod of dolphins, but two different pods was G_d's work.
After I moved to Sacramento for work, I prayed for my Adam. I met him on Lake Natoma while I was kayaking. It was just him and me on the lake that day. I even remember the exact spot where I caught up to him and said, "Hello." Unfortunately, he was my Adam, my first. He was not my last. He could never make a decision and stick with it, so I've stayed off the lake until today. I didn't want him to try to talk to me and try to revive our relationship or relieve his guilt from having ended the 2.5 year long relationship in a text while I was sleeping.
Today I returned to Lake Natoma and reclaimed it. Today I taught my friend from my nursery school days how to kayak there. We're both teachers, so she insisted that I teach her. It was quite fun, and she got an "A." I explained how I've not been back to the lake and why and she said, "Will just keep taking me, and I'll keep him away from you!" So I've reclaimed my sacred ground---water.
P.S. To my blog readers: If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at: https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960 Thank You!
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