Friday, January 8, 2010

Good to be Wrong

I worked in television for eleven years, and gave up my career to become a medium. One incident helped me make the choice and I will never forget it. My judgment and perception of a single situation was so completely wrong and I am so happy about it. At the end of my television career, I worked in a department that instructed the public on how to operate television equipment for producing local TV shows.

We had a regular client who came in weekly to pick up equipment and produce a show. She was very Southern, and walked with a limp. She spoke very slowly and always said, "Thank you Jesus," after every sentence. She was the producer of a very fundamentalist church program. After she would leave, we would all do our best "church lady" imitations and answer each other with "Thank you Jesus," phrases after every statement or question throughout the day.

One afternoon I had to help the church lady with her weekly show, and every time I would help her with an edit, she would say "Thank you Jesus." As I stood by her side that day, the spirit of a deceased woman overwhelmed me. I knew that it was the church lady's mother. I had no idea what to do. First of all, I was on company time, and secondly how was I going to tell a fundamentalist Christian woman that her dead mother was trying to get in touch with her.
I continued helping her to make edits, and for some reason I said, "Is your mom still alive?" She said no, and I hesitated for a couple of minutes, unsure of my next move. I started to explain to her how I could hear people who have died. I told her that her mother wanted to speak with her, and I asked her if she wanted to talk to her mother. She did not hesitate for even a second and said, "Yes, please tell me."

I started to tell her that her mother loved her very much. Her mother did not want her to feel guilty. She wanted to thank her for the pretty clothes, and a beautiful hat with flowers. I looked over at her and she was sobbing. She cleared her throat and told me a story that changed my life forever.

She explained that she had to put her mother in a nursing home and she had regretted it so much. She had children at home, was a hairdresser, and had to drive 60 miles every day to visit her mother. She said she made her mother outfits, and would fix her hair every weekend. One weekend she decided to take her mother to a tent revival. Her mother wore her new outfit and a beautiful hat with flowers. After the revival when they were driving back to the nursing home, her mother turned to her and said "Well, Kitten, we sure did get our whiskers wet in the bible tonight didn't we?" and she answered, "Yes, we did, I love you mama." The next thing she saw was the headlights of a semi truck. They were in a terrible accident and her mother was killed, and she was hospitalized for months. The only thing that survived the crash was the hat with flowers and her mother's glasses.

She told me that the hat now hung on the wall in her house, and she still put her mother's glasses on to see what her mother saw through her eyes. She had a permanent limp from the accident, and could no longer be a hairdresser, because the last person's hair she had done was her mother's, fourteen years earlier. She had never gotten over the guilt of the accident, or the nursing home, and her mother desperately wanted her to be free from guilt.

The following week, she invited me to her house and colored my hair for me. I was the first person she had worked with since her mother had died. The "Church Lady" was one of the most beautiful spirits I have ever met and she permanently left footprints in my heart.The universe may gently remind you when you are wrong, or it may hit you with a wrecking ball. Always admit when you are wrong and never be ashamed of your bad judgment. Learn from your mistakes, but more importantly live by your mistakes. What I mean by this is that you have to apply your new found knowledge to your daily life. I do my best not to make judgments about anyone. It is so hard not to, it's down right difficult. It is hard for me sometimes not to make light of people or imitate their quirks in a joking manner, but all I have to do is think of the "Church Lady" and the desire usually ends immediately

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