Just yesterday I was hanging out with a friend of mine and we started sharing personal stories from our youth (we are both in our 40s). Has this ever happened to you? The atmosphere is right and the sharing begins… and continues for as long as it takes until the connection is sealed in time forever. It is a wonderful experience, both liberating and healing at the same time.
Anyway, he told me in great detail a story that was tragic and uplifting at the same time. Her words described the experience in such detail that I felt like I was with her during the incident, watching it happen before my eyes. The story moved me to inspiration.
So here I am sitting today, New Year’s Eve 2010, retelling it in the hopes of dispelling your fears of death and the afterlife, and further instilling in you a deep passion for life on earth as it was. know. Our souls may live forever, but this life will eventually come to an end as we transition into the afterlife.
As we enter 2011 we have new opportunities to create joy in every moment. If this sounds intriguing to you, read on for a story about miracles and faith. My friend, Ronda, lived and worked in Miami Lakes, Florida in the late 1980s. She was married to John at the time and was raising her youngest son, Jonathan. Her marriage was tumultuous, and as a result, Ronda had lost so much weight without realizing that she was a size 0. This becomes important as the story continues.
The day that Ronda found a miracle beyond all the miracles in her life began as a typical day for her. At 8:15 a.m., she dropped her son off at daycare and began navigating interstate traffic on her way to a job interview. The night before she worked late into the night updating and revamping her resume. They had recently moved to Florida from Louisiana, where they had both worked for JSM.
She already had a job directing television, but she wanted another one that would give her a full-time income so she could continue living the kind of lifestyle she had grown accustomed to while working for Jimmy. This type of work is intense and demanding, which could only have increased her general level of mental stress.
Traffic was moving but congested due to endless construction on the southbound 4 lane highway. She hummed and sang out loud to the tunes from the radio in her brand new silver 1989 Lincoln Ltd, unaware of the unbelievable and horrifying experience she had endured. The interstate highway was heavy with traffic due to construction and when Ronda changed lanes she unknowingly hit some concrete barriers at a speed of at least 55 mph. This caused her car to spin out of control, off the interstate and down a long embankment before finally coming to a stop. She must have looked like a crazy trick because like we see in the movies, but she wasn’t. It was real.
Ronda said it happened so fast that all she noticed was a scraping sound and then when she opened her eyes all she could see was white. “Where I am?” Ronda asked herself. Unanswered.
As she took a few deep breaths, she realized she was inside her car, that she was upside down, and she was still strapped in with her seatbelt. When she tried to unlock herself, nothing happened. She then realized that her car was in some kind of ditch used for construction and water was leaking inside.
“What should I do? Please help me!” she begged herself, now realizing that she had to get out of the car… and soon…
“Try to turn your shoulders and twist your body,” she heard from a voice outside of herself but somehow also inside her. When she tried this idea, somehow knowing exactly which direction to move, it worked, and suddenly she fell onto the interior ceiling, distorted and confused. She tried to open the car door and didn’t move because the force of the water against her was too strong. As soon as she wondered where her briefcase was because it had her new resume, she came floating up to her along with her bag.
Oh, that’s a relief, he thought, not realizing how ridiculous it was. “But how do I get out?” she asked herself again, expecting to hear the angelic voice again.
“You’ll know in 90 seconds,” said a different voice.
“What?” Round thought.
“Ronda,” the angelic voice said, “do you want to live or die? Either way, you’ll be fine.”
Then without hesitation, Ronda replied, “I want to live. Please help me.” She now hears sirens approaching and the enormity of her situation begins to sink in. Glub, glub, glub was the sound of water, as she was now seeing much faster in her car. Before she could call for more help, she heard “45 seconds” from the second voice.
“What is this? An angel keeping track of time?” she thought to herself, feeling frustrated that time was moving so slowly and she was still stuck in her drowning car.
Then he could hear the voices of the emergency team approaching his car. They said they couldn’t see the passenger, so she yelled, “I’m here. I’m here. Please help.”
“Ronda, you must move to the back seat of the car,” the voice commanded. “You must do it quickly.” He hurried on, knowing that the 45 seconds wouldn’t last forever and that something bad could happen if he didn’t comply.
When he got to the back seat, he was instructed to put his feet in certain positions. She felt that she was not inside her body, but was looking at herself from the outside as if her body was a puppet. “Now, when we give the order, you must push as hard as you can on the rear window,” her voice said.
“The water is at least 12 feet deep,” said one of the firefighters. The sound of rescuers was getting closer, but Ronda had no idea how far away they really were. she was alone. On her account, that is, except for the angels who were assisting her and saving her life.
“And it’s very important that when you push you don’t inhale at the same time, Ronda. Push as you exhale,” the voice said. Then, before she could wonder what to do next, she heard:
“Okay, Ronda, push!” This time her voice spoke in a tone so strong that it vibrated through her entire body and gave her strength. As she pushed, the entire rear window of his car swung open with ease. And then white water rushed at her face and body, pushing her off balance and downward.
No wonder I wasn’t supposed to inhale, she thought as she grabbed her briefcase and purse and got out of the car into a huge pond of thick limestone residue. Getting out of the car, he heard what must have been a police officer asking for the details of the accident. “I saw it,” he heard him say to another voice. “His car must have flipped at least 20 times.”
The thickness of the limestone mud Ronda was swimming through did not concern her. He knew that safety was less than 20 feet away on the sloping banks and that he was going to get there against all odds. She also knew that she was a good swimmer and, even though she had some neck and back pain, this was going to be a lot easier than getting stuck in that sinking car. She seemed like she was taking forever, and then her train of concentration was interrupted by the sound of laughter.
“She’s okay,” one of the crewmen yelled, “because I can see she has her bag and briefcase with her.” Ronda had completely forgotten that she had these essentials for life as she clung to them for dear life. At the beginning of her monotony, she realized that her shoes were slowing her down, so they came out of her, but not her bags.
After what seemed like an hour of swimming in the mud, Ronda made it to shore where she was helped thereafter by human-like rescuers. She was rushed to hospital by ambulance and her neck and back injuries were treated on an outpatient basis. She Not even she was admitted to the hospital! Several weeks later, Ronda went to the wrecking yard to retrieve the car’s registration with John. She was so completely devastated when she saw the unrecognizable, demolished because she burst into tears. She couldn’t believe that she was still alive and yet, at the same time she could believe it because she had been asked and she remembered that she was sure that she would live.
“It was not by chance that he lived,” Ronda told me. “I have important healing work to do for our planet.”
In the time after seeing his car, he understood that many synchronicities had occurred that day:
Synchronicity #1: She would not have survived the intensity of the crash if it weren’t for the protection of her angels.
Synchronicity #2: She also knew she wouldn’t have been able to take her seat belt off if she wasn’t so small.
Synchronicity #3. And she knew that she was alone in the car when the accident happened because she couldn’t have saved herself or her little boy.
Synchronicity #4. She knew that if he had seen the actual damage to the car instead of the white limestone water that covered everything, she would have been in such a state of panic that she would not have survived.
And as for the importance of the bag and the briefcase… I guess it was comic relief!
