Blair's Gap

"Oh, mighty and powerful God who art with me always, my right arm and my strength, so much easier is it to give you thanks when I have my daily bread and a promise of tomorrow than when my life is in turmoil and my faith is tested. So often, my God, I stand alone. So often I am broken. Where is my helper, my God, if not in you? I am sucked down to the depths of sorrow and despair. I am absent all love but yours. Pick me up once more I pray and will my legs to move. Take from me my destroying pride and self-pity. Pick me up once more I pray and give me strength to move."

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Chapter 9

Father's Table

Armor of God

...I was helping my mother go through some boxes in her basement when I came across a small box of books. Near the top was the King James Bible that Nora had bought me for my twelfth birthday. The front cover had been folded over and held there for years by another books. When I folded the flap back over, I saw where my name had been embossed in red ink. I remembered how much I loved that Bible when I was an altar boy. It made me sad to see that it wound up there in a box of old books in my mother's basement. I took it out of the box, dusted it off, and kept it.

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I thought about many things over the next few days. I thought about how my ex-wife's love of reading had taught me to appreciate reading for entertainment and fun. I thought about all the books I didn't care about, but would have to read before I finished college. I wondered how I would explain to God how I found the time to read so many books, but never found the time to read His.

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So I committed to reading that Bible from cover to cover, just a little bit each night, sometimes just until I could turn a page, just as Nora did for her entire life. The more I read it, the more I became aware that many organized religions based their beliefs on only a portion of the Bible or added something that wasn't there.

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In searching out my faith, I found myself most comfortable in non-denominational, Christ-based churches. They seemed to be the only churches that recognized the coming and dwelling of the Holy Spirit, the differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the law that defeats us, and the law that saves us. By my second or third time through, I was beginning to truly understand God's love and what He had done for me. I was establishing a relationship with the Lord, and I was beginning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

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As I put Christ into perspective, I found guidance and understanding for many other aspects of my life. I was fourteen when I first saw the traveler and nearly thirty at the time of the reminder. By the time I reached the age of thirty, I was aware that thoughts of Blair's Gap and the old man would haunt me for the entirety of my life if I let them. They were memories that needed to be addressed, unexplained events that required clarification, and nightmares that needed to be put to bed. It was a confrontation I would not take lightly, a final conflict that would require preparation.

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EPILOGUE

For generations (four that have been documented) our family has kept our history and intuitive abilities secret. David and I grew up knowing we could not share with others the inherited curse that followed the men through my father's side of the family, or our intuitive abilities that continue to be passed on to each new generation. Because of this instilled cloak of silence, I was initially very hesitant to support David in this writing endeavor. However, he showed me there is value in sharing his story, the truth of his life.

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David's story is a journey of self-discovery and healing. He ties the threads of his life together to form meaning through what he experienced and what he learned from those experiences. I shared part of his journey, and he kindly included me in the telling of his story.

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David was not the first male member of our family to resort to alcohol/drugs to dull the ability to see what was not there and to hear what was not audible. But he is the first to find his way out of the darkness and feel the need to share it with others. I was side by side with him through his childhood years and our unorthodox upbringing, which was the result of our mother's open-mindedness and acceptance of things unseen. It was not her open-mindedness or acceptance that I feel was at fault. I feel it was more the lack of experience, discernment, and knowledge about spiritual matters that left the door wide open for anything and everything to come through and it did. To this day, I will not touch a Ouija board or anything similar.

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Growing up, we tried to hide our differences from others. I resorted to being very serious and studious. We were as different as night and day in our approach to life and the pathways we eventually chose. Despite our different approaches, we accomplished the same thing; we distanced ourselves from others and, as a result, no one got close enough to learn our secrets during our formative years. It was a pattern that continued well into our adulthood.

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With maturity, we have each found a respect and tolerance for each other's individuality and different chosen pathways. I developed my skills as an energetic healer, lightworker, shaman, and teacher/instructor. Both of our pathways, though different, end in the same place, at home with the Divine, with a mission to serve our Creator by helping others find their way home through self-discovery and self-healing. This story is the story of David's truth, and in the telling, part of it is my truth.

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Epilogue By: Patricia Burdick Briggs

MSN, RN4, CCRN, HTCP, HTCI/1

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