My son had invited me to go on a three-day trip to New York City to see the Christo and Jeanne-Claude sculpture "The Gates." As a retired art teacher, I was thrilled at the prospect—being with my son, a professional photographer, and seeing the rhapsody of color and movement that was drawing thousands of viewers from around the world. There was little time for decisionmaking because the sculpture was to be dismantled in a few days.

I had concerns, however, about making the trip. Some months prior, I'd suffered the effects of a difficult fall in my apartment in the retirement building where I live. As I fell, I had heard a resounding crack, and I thought a bone in my knee might be broken. The pain was intense, and I couldn't get up.

My immediate response had been to pray with a passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that I knew by heart: "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 424). I continued to pray earnestly. I felt calmer, and more certain about what to do next.

In a few moments, I was able to pull my way across the floor to a telephone. I called a Christian Science practitioner who has been a close friend for many years. She immediately began to pray, giving me an audible Christian Science treatment, affirming spiritual facts about my identity that reassured me that I was safe and unharmed. As she continued to talk with me, the pain lessened. When we hung up, I was able to pull myself up and walk with the aid of a chair.

The practitioner's prayer for me continued for several weeks. During this time, I made steady progress, and was able to resume my normal life with the help of a walker. After about a month, I began to walk without any help inside my apartment. I was enormously grateful for this rapid recovery, which some might say was especially remarkable given my years.

Still, when I received my son's invitation to go to New York, my first reaction was that it wasn't possible. I was surrounded, however, with the encouragement of family and friends. The practitioner gave me encouragement based on my ability to trust God and walk with Him, which lifted my sights higher. My daughter called me daily with happy pep talks. A friend, who is a reverend canon at a local Episcopal cathedral, encouraged me to follow the teachings of "my Christian Science mother," and not to be afraid. He added that he would keep me in his prayers each day of the journey.

I began to rethink the verdict I'd imposed on myself. Another passage from Science and Health brought further encouragement: "When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak, resting instead of wearying one" (p. 426). I knew, from decades of experience in relying on prayer for my needs, that through regularly striving to understand more about my Godgiven spiritual harmony and freedom, I had the right to expect only unchangeable good. I knew that putting my entire trust in God's will, and not my own, would give me my answer.

As I continued to pray, I realized that not only had I let fear limit me, but also had too often made assumptions that age could limit me. In prayer, I began replacing these negative thoughts with joyful ones from the Bible, such as "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh. 8:10). I even decorated a T-shirt with a line I love from the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson—"Scatter Joy." People smiled when they saw it, and my son called it my new slogan. Soon, it was clear to me that it was right to go on this trip.

After we arrived in New York and got settled at the hotel, our first stop was Central Park to see "The Gates." The sculpture blazed before our eyes. I was able to walk under the stunning orange and saffron banners waving overhead, although it was windy and icy. It was inspiring to be an actual participant in a breathtaking work of art that was taken out of the commercial world—"decommodified"— and that allowed everyone to be personally involved. We walked many blocks. Even after several hours, I didn't feel tired or disturbed. I walked with only a cane and my son's arm for assistance.

My son had rented a lightweight fold-up wheelchair for the trip. At first, I protested, but he explained that it could serve both as a walker and as a package and camera carrier. So we took it with us on the second morning, and I mushed through the snow pushing the chair loaded with cameras, and also had a dry place to sit while my son was setting up the tripod.

During the three-day trip, we were on the go the whole time, including two evenings at the theater. One of my earlier fears had been that I might be unable to keep up with the itinerary my son and his wife had so lovingly put together. Most of all, I didn't want to interfere with my son's photography work. But focusing on the fact that my strength came from God freed me to fall quite in love with New York again, as I had many years before as an art and music student.

On the plane flying home, I was overwhelmed with joy about every minute we had been away. And I suddenly realized that my knee had not pained me throughout the entire trip. To me, this was proof of Jesus' words, "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). My gratitude was unbounded. We had been told that Christo's exhibit caused a change as if a cloud had been lifted from the entire city. And how near I came to missing it all! It was only my own negative thoughts of accident and age that had tried to deprive me of this special experience. Instead, I learned again that healing takes place in consciousness, and that holding thought to spiritual concepts, in tandem with an expectation of being healed, speeds our spiritual progress. Once more I saw the truth of the Psalmist's words, "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy" (Ps. 16:11).

CHRIS DORMAN
ATLANTA, GEORGIA