“There are miracles everywhere and can be found in every circumstance if we look for them.”
Laura Lane from ‘I Touch the Heavens’
This last week I had two wonderful reminders that I am being watched over and guided to the right places at the right time. Both occurred in my travels to and from a retreat near Zion’s National Park in Southern Utah.
On Tuesday night I flew into Las Vegas with plans to stay at a hotel for the night before driving into St. George to meet up with my friend Jessica. I booked a hotel off the highway on the way towards St. George. The next day I would have a 2 hour drive plus a one hour time difference.
I picked up my rental car and made my way to my hotel. Once off the highway, I turned down a street that took me under the main road and into an industrial area. There were no longer any street lights, the road was badly paved and there wasn’t anyone around.
I double checked my directions. Yes, this was the correct street. I did see a hotel up ahead but not the one I thought I had booked. I usually stay at the Hampton Inn or another 3 star hotel. This was a 2 star hotel and looked pretty sketchy.
My directions and the paper I had printed out next to me said this was it.
Now I’m feeling pretty perplexed. This is not like me to book myself into a 2 star hotel especially in a dark, sketchy neighborhood.
I park my car and a homeless man draped in a blanket is wandering around near my car and between me and the front door.
I just don’t feel good about it. I’m alone and it’s past nine pm. It’s really dark and there isn’t anyone else around outside.
I sit there for a few minutes debating whether I should stay or go find somewhere else. Google maps says there is a Hampton Inn not far from here in a busier area off the highway. I can’t believe I have made a mistake like this.
I drive to the nicely lit, welcoming Hampton Inn, take my suitcase out of the trunk and ask the front desk if I have a room booked there. The kind lady checks and lets me know that no I’m not booked there and they don’t have any room available but perhaps the Marriott next door does.
As I walk through the parking lot to the Marriott to inquire about a room, I begin to offer up silent prayers that there will be a room for me. I am beginning to feel like Mary and Joseph. The lady at the Marriott kindly says they are all booked as well.
At this point I know I have a room at that 2 star hotel, but you couldn’t pay me to go back there. The staff starts making calls to see if anyone else nearby has rooms.
While she makes calls, I start thinking about my friend Jessica in St. George. Maybe I can just go stay with her instead. I won’t get there until 1am but it would be better than the alternative.
When I call, she is just on the shuttle bus to the hotel there. Yes we’re good. I can stay with her tonight and she’ll have the front desk leave me a key to her room.
I’m still dumbfounded as to how I could have gotten myself into this fix but I climb back into my car and begin my 2 hour journey from Las Vegas to St. George. Thankfully my daughter was awake and kept me company talking on the phone for over an hour.
At one am I pulled up to the hotel, picked up my key from the front desk and crawled into bed exhausted from 20 hours of travel.
The next morning as I relayed the whole story to Jessica, we opened the curtains to discover that the whole area had been blanketed in a thick split soup fog. We couldn’t even see the parking lot.
I now know why the universe worked so hard to get me out of Vegas the night before. If I had stayed the night, I would have had to drive through the mountains in that horrible fog. It would have been a nerve wracking and possibly dangerous experience. It was either that or that hotel just wasn’t safe and I was better off staying the night with a friend. Either way I truly felt watched over.
Have you ever felt like even though it all seems crazy at the time, that you have been guided to the right place and the right time and somehow you may have dodged an even crazier bullet?
I would love to hear your stories of bullets dodged and inspired actions that help keep you safe.
Next week I will share with you my other amazing story on my trip home!
“Spiritual strength is acknowledging the unseen forces of the universe, the Divine and the angelic and having faith enough to ask for and receive that help.”
Laura Lane from ‘I Touch the Heavens’