I ski very often, and occasionally with a group of my friends. In March of 2013 we decided to spend a day on the slopes of a neighboring mountain. The weather was crisp, and the snow “hard pack,” making the trails fast but manageable. We started skiing the outer trails first, and were starting to work toward the steepest. Near the base of one of the steeper runs, I remember seeing a “Slow” sign where two trails merged.

After that I remember being in an ambulance. I was told that another skier from the merging slope had accidentally run into me. I had been hit from the side and thrown into the stanchion, or support pole, that held up the chairlift. After that I’d lost my skis and rolled down an embankment of about 15 feet, where I finally stopped. When I regained consciousness, I didn’t feel pain, but I couldn’t raise my head. I was told I might have to have surgery, and that the paramedics wanted to airlift me to a hospital that was further away but had more available surgeons.

We arrived at the nearby hospital, and after having scans taken it was indicated that I did not need surgery after all. By the middle of the afternoon, I was released with a few stitches around my eye, but with the diagnosis of a concussion.

As I heard the whole story of what had happened, I could only be grateful for all the things that had gone right: At the beginning of the season I was encouraged by many people to buy a better helmet, a practical decision I’d finally made before the accident, which helped protect me from further injuries. Since I was with a group of friends, they were all able to help immediately, and in their own way. One friend was able to get in contact with my younger daughter, who lived nearby, and through a series of phone calls was able to reach a Christian Science practitioner to immediately support me through prayer. Another friend from this group had packed a bag of essentials for me; among them was a copy of The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Bible Lesson that I was able to read over the next few days after leaving the hospital.

This whole experience made me see that God’s angel messages had really supported me all the way. I felt so much love and care from others, but even more strongly, I felt God’s love, and that I was always governed by Truth. I knew I had been protected even through what appeared to be a disastrous event, and since I was filled with love and joy there was no room for anything but complete healing.

That evening after I got home I had a little difficulty gripping things and was not able to entirely undress by myself, but those challenges were gone the next day. I continued to pray and know that God is infinite Mind and that I am a reflection of Him as His image and likeness. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit,—the law of divine Love” (p. 19). After this experience, I felt this sense of Love. I had been pulled back from an abyss of physical damage and fear and into a spiritual realm where none of that could take place. It was a joyful, secret place of the most high, and even though that place was within thought, it had an external, physical result.

I didn’t experience any symptoms from the concussion I was diagnosed with, and my eye injury was quickly healed as well. Within a very few days I was driving again, and within a week I was dancing (another favorite activity). When the new ski season started up in November, I was joyfully back on the slopes and have been skiing ever since.

Joan Miller
Bedford, New Hampshire, US