STORYTIME TAPESTRY

The Newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world

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Special Treat ??“ Ellie Braun Haley

Sept 3, 2005? 

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INVITING THE SPIRIT

by Ellie Braun-Haley ? 

While recording stories for the book, "A Little Door , A Little Light,??? I made it a habit to pray before I arrived at a home to record a story.

I was working with sensitive material. These were personal true stories and all involved heavenly intervention. They were about encounters with angels,
Near Death Experiences, After Death Communications, Visions and stories that indicated the power of prayer. The stories were not usually spoken of outside of family circles yet they were glorious and they well demonstrated there was indeed life after death. Because the stories were so very special I wanted to be sure that my frame of mind was good and that I was open to all that would be said. I knew that God was watching over the project and I felt prayer was essential.

On this one particular day I went to a schoolteacher's home to record her story. I had heard the story once already on the phone, then we set up this meeting so I could officially record everything in her words. I was so rushed that day and I missed saying a prayer.

I arrived, set up the recording equipment and as I looked up at her, ready to begin I was dismayed to see her body language was communicating something negative. She sat there leaning back, with arms folded, and said ???Okay what exactly do you plan on doing with this story???? Everything about her question including the way she was sitting screamed lack of trust and skepticism.

I was dismayed and puzzled. On the phone she had been open and friendly. Her question threw me. Why was she asking what I was going to do with her story? I told her on the phone I was going to publish a book of stories. She had been agreeable and now she was suspicious and closed.

The answer hit me like a brick! I neglected to pray. We needed the spirit to be with us, yet we only had friction and contention. I felt sick and unsure how to proceed. I felt so ashamed of myself. I am sure that I was being reminded that the project I was working on had God??™s seal of approval and he was very much in control. I was the laborer but he was the architect and he knew the plans. I searched my mind for a solution.

Since the teacher was not interested in talking, I began talking, about my son, Jason. I spoke of his life, those 17 wonderful years. I remembered Jason and his great interest in others, his caring attitude. Then I spoke of his death and the devastating feeling of being separated from him. I talked to her about the day in the church, three months after Jason's death, when Jason returned to speak to me. I began to relive the very event. My heart and my arms were aching for the only son I ever had, now gone from my life. At that point I broke down in front of the lady.

My voice shook and sobs racked my body as I relived that time in the church when God sent Jason to comfort me. I had felt so lost so full of loneliness and pain.

I was standing, waiting to leave the church that day, spent from the hour of sobbing,(both for the family of the deceased and for myself) knowing that never again would I hold my son in my arms and hug his tall six foot-two frame. Seventeen years was not enough time. I remembered thinking, ???I??™ve lost him. I??™ll never hold my son again.??? And then I felt my son??™s presence, smelled the aftershave that he had always loved and heard his voice. "You have not lost me mom. I am still here."

I tried to continue talking to the schoolteacher as I sat there in her home reliving those moments but I was so emotionally overwhelmed, I couldn??™t speak further. I wanted to tell her that he visited me again the next day but I could only sob.

The school teacher, unfolded her arms and reached across to console me. Gently she touched my wrist. I could see tears glistening in her eyes. She understood, for she too had walked the path of grief.

I knew, in that single touch, the spirit had returned to be with us in that room.

In opening up to her, she saw my pain and vulnerability. She recognized something she needed to know. I had reached her spirit and all barriers were removed.

That day. I was reminded of the importance of prayer. I was reminded that I needed my Heavenly Father to be with me each time I recorded these special stories. On subsequent visits with others, I prayed before the sessions and I never had a repeat of the visit with the school teacher. The book was completed and the lesson will be remembered!

Ellie Braun-Haley
shaley@telusplanet.net

The book A LITTLE DOOR, A LITTLE LIGHT by Ellie Braun-Haley with Shawn Haley was published by Eagle Creek Publishers. That website is under construction and contact for books must be made to Ellie at shaley@telusplanet.net
or by going to Amazon.com