Dancing Shiva

I was doing Doctoral work at Austin Seminary and would walk by a store on the way to dinner almost every evening. I saw in the window a small, probably 10″ tall a Dancing Shiva statue such like the one above. It was very simple, brass and it was fascinating. (this is even before I went to India). The day before I left I saw it again and I determined I would set a mental price and if it was less than that I would get it to reward myself for the work I had completed. Alas, the store had closed 30 minutes before.

Classes on Saturday were over at noon and even though I wanted to be on the road from Austin to Phoenix, I decided to stop by and see how much it cost. I walked up, passed the window and it was gone. It was not in the window where I’d seen it the whole week. I thought it had sold or they had moved it. I asked the woman in the store if it had been moved? She said, “I don’t think we’ve ever had a Shiva here.” I said I had been looking at it each day- it was sitting just there. Actually there was a space where it had been. Nothing else was there. There were other items and there was the space. She asked the other sales person who said with a smile, “No, We’ve never had one of those.” Thinking perhaps they knew the statue as something else I found a photo and showed them. They both shook their heads.

I laughed. Well then, I guess that I’m not supposed to have it just now. It was puzzling. Don’t think I saw another one right away, or if I doubted myself, or I’d hallucinated it, or that I pursued getting one for myself. Years later, when I did go to India, I found it. Just like the one above pictured. Just like the one from the store. It has always brought a smile remembering this story as a prelude to my actually having one.

There is no deep, Why. There is no mystery. There is curiosity…see it made me smile again.

Do things come to us when we are supposed to have them? Do we acquire wisdom or insights at the right time? Is there such a thing as God’s good time?

Then I remembered the line, “If you really want something badly enough let it go free, If it comes back to you it’s yours, if it doesn’t you never really had it in the first place.” Sorry, I don’t remember the quotes origin.

I do remember someone quoting it to me — I don’t know the situation.

But it does seem that things do come to us when we need them. My father was an Ornithologist at Ohio State University and studied Migratory patterns in Red-Winged Blackbirds. Often for me at a time in my life when I am looking for an affirmation or an assurance…I see a Red-wing. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. For me, it is a sign. Be alert. Be aware the universe can send signs, or dreams, or people to us at just the right time.

God Abide, Bobbie Giltz McGarey, 10.16.23, Easton PA