There are times in my life where I feel so related with the Universe that it is constantly reacting with me, as though I am one with it, breathing with it, it works with me like cause and effect. I have had many of such instances in my life although they do not occur regularly – they only occur when I am AWARE, these occasions are frequent when I am in the practice of regular faithful prayer, or engrossed in reflecting and writing. Suddenly I become aware of the signs around me. And the signs are so specific to my situation and so proximate in time that after its many recurrence, I cannot think of them as mere coincidences any more. This was particularly true back when I was 15yrs when I was very close to The Higher Power (call it God, whatever, it does not matter) and His name and my ever-flowing gratitude to him was so pronounced, had I allowed myself I would have cried constantly out of unreasonable and unexplainable Bliss.

What are signs? They are things I see, hear, experience, touch that give me instant realizations, which often come as answers to a problem I am experiencing. I have received anonymous random notes with advice so specific to my situation, I have opened pages off books and lines of it tell me something I need to put me in perspective….I think I may have mentioned, during my travels last year, I met a Dutch sailorman for lunch one day and I was on my round of questions about his life in the rough seas. This was before I travelled to Afghanistan in 2009 and was for the first time, surprisingly, genuinely afraid. I was asking him whether he feared the storms at sea, knowing the ship could capsize at any time. He was, but he said ‘After awhile you realise you can’t be scared all the time.’ It was simple. But he said it right, and he said it at the right time.