Article March 19, 2012 Issue

A clear sign

By Carol Gaetjen

It was time to think about moving. Condo living proved too restrictive with fees climbing at a scary rate—not the peaceful home I’d expected in my golden years. But the “what and where” utterly escaped me. As a longtime student of Christian Science, I had learned by now that God alone could lead me to the next development regarding home. I wasn’t exactly worried, but the issue was never far from my thought.

On a gorgeous warm Sunday in mid-October, I was ready to spend the afternoon relaxing. There were six weeks left in my term as First Reader for my Christian Science church, and after the service I planned to put my feet up for the afternoon, maybe work on the readings for the Wednesday testimony meeting at church. Then an inner voice said quite clearly, “Go kayaking.” I brushed it aside.

Back in July, I was vacationing at a camp on Lake Winnipesaukee, a sparkling jewel of a lake in New Hampshire. (Winnipesaukee means “the smile of the Great Spirit,” and Mary Baker Eddy refers to this lake in Science and Health on page 477). I was stretching to hang my sun-shower (a device campers use to heat water) on a tree, when I fell from a large boulder. I landed heavily on my shoulder and upper arm, momentarily stunned and unable to move. The pain shortly gave way when I challenged it with immediate and firm prayerful declarations of my exemption from injury and accident. But I could not lift or use the arm at all.

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