At the Ranch: You Should Listen When the Universe is Telling You Something

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By Sigrid Settle

This story started about three days ago.  I get pushes some of the time, or in other words a very strong feeling comes over me and it will generally guide me to a store where there is something I’ve been looking for and couldn’t find in the usual fashion.  This push appeared to be no exception as far as I was concerned.  I assumed this was about something I’d find at The Golden Goose around ten o’clock in the morning.  I awoke yesterday morning ready to go to the store when it opened, as many items are purchased at that time, but somehow I felt it was okay to be late, getting some kind of reassurance being late would be all right, which seemed a little odd, but okay.

   When I left home I had another urge to stop by the post office, before I started down to The Golden Goose, in hopes of picking up some late Christmas packages but that turned out to be a red herring of sorts, my post office box was empty.  As my car headed down toward Catalina, I wondered why I had even thought to stop by the post office to look for mail, a feeling come over me of complete contentment just as a person came into sight who was walking along the side of the highway.  I wondered if he was a bicyclist we often see along the route to Catalina; but the closer I got to him the more I started realizing he was walking along with a  backpack slung across his back and a package he was holding in his hand.    I had an urge to stop and pick him up but thought perhaps he was wanting to take a solitary walk on his own as hikers do in our area so I ignored the impulse and drove by him just as I saw his finger come up signifying he was open to a ride in a car.

   As I drove by him, further down the road, a stronger urge came over me to turn around and go back to him.  I resisted realizing I needed to get to town; but the more I drove along ignoring that urge the stronger the urge became until I finally stopped my car beside the highway.  A feeling of complete exasperation coursed through my veins as I waited for cars to pass me and turned my car around going all the way back to offer this stranger a ride into Catalina not understanding this situation.   He almost ran across the highway when he saw me, but I was able to turn my car around and allow him to put his backpack and package in the backseat.  He sat down beside me saying he was grateful I had come around because he was very tired and wondered if he’d be able to walk much further down the road.  He had spent the night in Oracle in a tent behind the Circle K, but rest had eluded him.

   I started driving down the road and our conversation began with him talking quickly and me asking questions in between rapid fire words from him.  It turned out he was from Munich, Germany, had been abandoned by his parents when he was two years old and as a result he became mute for ten years.  He said he didn’t remember those ten years and as he continued talking I realized his thoughts were a bit unfocused jumping from subject to subject in rather rapid succession.  He stopped for a few moments in between breathes and said perhaps he was trying to make up for ten years of being mute, but since he was 61 years old I rather thought by now he’d caught up with ten years of silence.

   I asked him if he’d like to stop by The Golden Goose, a sort of thrift store, as that was my first destination.  He said he had lots of time with a smile coming across his face as he helped me unload some of the items I was giving away that day.  When we went into the store I told him I’d buy him a few items of clothes as I noticed his clothes didn’t fit very well and I realized there was a distinctive odor coming from them.  He was surprised and off he went to find pants and a top as I walked leisurely around looking for items I needed and had not been unable to find at any store recently.  It became obvious I wasn’t going to find anything I was looking for and that seemed a little odd as I had that push to come here or so I thought, as I shrugged my shoulders, as I went over to see if he’d found some clothes.  He came back with a sweatshirt and pair of pants that would fit him which was rather an accomplishment since he made Abe Lincoln look short and as I stood beside him I looked as if I was a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz.  I took the purchases to the register to pay for them and he asked if he could change into his new clothes.  I nodded yes and pointed toward the men’s restroom.  He emerged from the rest room looking so much better without his old clothes and I must say smelling a bit better as well.

  I found out later he had to throw away his pants when he was camping in Globe.  It was so cold, he only had a small tent, so he took a rock, heated it up by the fire and then put it between his legs to try and warm up.   He had to throw away the pants the next day and replaced them with clothes he found along the highway; as a matter of fact everything he had on, including the scarf keeping his head warm, had been discarded items he had found as he was walking from Sedona, Arizona all the way to Oracle which covered a five day period of time and people who were picking him up offering him rides to their destinations.   His backpack was not that large and I started realizing there was no way he’d could carry many clothes with him followed by the realization this man didn’t have enough money to pay to have his clothes cleaned; the most expedient thing to do was to toss them away when they were dirty enough as he did in the rest room when he changed his clothes this day.  It appeared there were others as well who had this habit from Sedona to Oracle. 

   Our journey together found us at Starbucks with me buying him the largest coffee I could purchase and a surprise look coming across his face as he drank the first gulp and said he usually got coffee from a convenience store if he had any money at all and certainly not Starbucks.  This was followed by purchasing a much needed scarf to keep his neck warm and a cap to replace the old piece of cloth he had used to keep his head warm on his long trek.   He then found himself at Whole Foods glancing down at their food buffet of chicken, macaroni and cheese, all sorts of vegetables and other foods cooked in the most luxurious fashion possible as well as a large selection of  deserts.  When I handed him a food container to fill up he looked as if he was a child in a candy store loading up items that made his stomach yearn to eat and a realization came over him how hungry he had become; something I think he ignored a great deal of the time.

  We parted company in front of the Salvation Army store close to a bus stop that would allow him to ride into downtown Tucson which he said was his final destination.   As I drove off I saw him on the bench waiting for the bus, but he seemed more absorbed in eating his container of food from Whole Foods than looking for a bus to ride in.  I started back toward the stores I needed to shop at now that I found myself in this area, but I wondered why all of this had happened, I really never found anything I had needed during this journey.  

  He told me he had been quite depressed the morning just before I picked him up, talking to God and wondering if things would get better; hoping and praying things would get better.  I told him perhaps we had come together to remind him the Universe is an amazing place and when you ask for help it will appear, but somehow that explanation didn’t leave me feeling as if I had my answer as to all that had just happened.  I went to bed that night still wondering and I drifted off to sleep without an answer; that is until this morning when a friend called me to update me on what was happening in her life.  She started talking to me and I had that familiar feeling come over me; I felt a push to tell this story for the first time and she listened as it unfolded. 

   I told her about the happenings before I found this man, how we had come together and all things that followed after he opened the car door and sat beside me.  She listened and as she did I had the sense this story was for her.  She had a son who is out in the world alone.  She worries about him because there are times when he has no money, no place to stay but any of the help she has given him doesn’t seem to help his circumstances at all leaving her with a feeling of helplessness, a place no mother wants to find herself in not knowing what to do.   I finished telling her my story and told her if the Universe could help this 61 year old man from Munich who had asked God for help in his prayer that morning and found himself on this journey with me, I thought her son would also receive the help he needed as well. 

  Perhaps the Universe was saying not to worry, we are here, just allow it to come into your life.

  And so it goes at the Ranch and Beyond

 ~ Sigrid

Staff (5795 Posts)

There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.


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