February 2013 – The Art of Silence in a Noisy World

As I wrote in “Dear God”, my brother and sister-in law have been going through hell. My sister-in law found out in November that she has leukemia and she’s been battling a tough fight ever since. My brother and sister-in-law came to visit us last August and all was well, by November she was one sick lady; makes you realize how much we take life for granted. She survived pneumonia, chemotherapy and now she is waiting for a bone marrow donor to be found for a bone marrow transplant. I live across the country and when family members go through something difficult, the miles between us become excruciating. To say that we are concerned about my sister-in-law is an understatement, we are all worried sick about her, especially my brother. I’ve put my sister-in-law’s name down in every prayer group I know, I say a prayer every morning and night and sometimes in-between. This past weekend my son played in a hockey tournament in Seattle. All four of us went down to Seattle for the weekend. We were so busy running to games, keeping on top of the schedule, figuring out where to eat and making sure the team of hockey players didn’t tear apart the hotel while we weren’t looking. I didn’t really have a lot of time for anything this weekend and by the time I crashed at the end of the day, I’m not sure I even said a prayer. My husband pre-booked tickets to the Everett Silvertips hockey game for the night we arrived. The boys spent the afternoon hanging around the pool while my husband and I just sat in a chair! We booked Silvertip tickets for other parents and team members as well, unfortunately one team member didn’t make it down to Seattle in time for the game. Consequently, we waited too long at the hotel for this family to arrive and when we realized they weren’t going to make it in time we rushed like hell to the arena to see the game. The real story of my life, always rushing from one place to another place with a little bickering in-between. We made it to the Arena just in time for the American National Anthem. At the entrance of the area where we were sitting they had black curtains drawn across the row so you couldn’t walk into the arena during the National Anthem. I stood there with my hands clasped and my head down out of respect for the American Anthem and when I looked up there was a sign I hadn’t noticed in my mad rush to get to our seats. The sign was sitting on a display easel and at that moment the whole universe seemed to scream at me. Pictured below is the sign and to most of you it will look like just a real estate sign advertising business. To me it was a sign, a sign from the universe, a sign from God or a sign from the Angel I’ve been talking to. A very simple sign really but in big bold letters the name LAMOUREUX and below in very small letters it said real estate. The word real estate looked much smaller on the arena sign than the one pictured below because all I could see was LAMOUREUX. After the National Anthem we find our seats and as I’m watching the game, my eyes followed the puck and all of a sudden there it was “LAMOUREUX.” The universe was screaming at me again. A much bigger sign than the one at the entrance was posted along the boards of the ice rink. Lamoureux is the last name of my sister-in-law and that simple sign was just that, a simple sign, a sign that my sister-in-law and her illness has the universe’s attention. Maybe, just maybe all those prayers are coming through. To all those nay sayers I say this to you – signs and symbols are a big part of all of our lives. Usually we are just too bloody busy to really take notice. The universe was talking to me last weekend and it was loud enough for me to stop and listen. It was saying LAMOUREUX…