This past Saturday we went blueberry picking and for once, they were where I left them and they were big.
They were so good that they wiped out the sting of the mosquitoes that were hovering around our ears and biting the back of my neck. The wild taste of wild blueberries is hard to beat in flapjacks, in a pie, a crumble or made into jam. Even just by the pure, natural mouthful.
Afterwards we went for a swim to cool off and something happened that changed the tone and feel of the day that up to that point had included some fun garage sale finds during the city-wide sale in Soudan and Tower and some right here at home in Ely.
It was a Saturday after the stormy week that I had been looking forward to. A day off in which relaxation was topping my to-do list. There was more stress in the wings though and when I was swimming for shore, my left hand pushed forward and pulled back grazing a rock because I was shallower than I thought.
Something happened then that has never happened before, in a pool, in a lake or ocean. Not in the nearly thirty years since I’ve worn my wedding ring and its companion have they ever slipped from my finger. They are usually snug in any temperature and in cold or warm/hot water. In our frigid Ely lakes they have never abandoned me of their own volition. Before.
Anyway, they both came off like my finger had been coated in hot butter or something. I felt them slip off like they were two or three sizes too big and they drifted down somewhere in the rock bed at my feet, about four or five feet under water.
I stayed where I was, as much as I could manage and told Jen, who was on shore, what had happened.
She came out and we began looking through the clear water towards the bottom. We couldn’t see anything.
Jen asked a little girl who had just arrived with her family in a boat to the landing if we could borrow her swim goggles. The girl said yes and we took turns using them to dive. About this time another couple of kids who had also been swimming came over to help us search the bottom. At one point, somehow, I found my ring with colorful stones that is the shape of a heart, but no wedding ring. After about fifteen minutes, or longer, I guess, the kids all had to leave. They left us a pair of goggles as well. I wanted to give the goggles back, but they said that we could keep them.
They wanted us to have our best shot at finding my wedding ring.
Then, when I was under water, I heard Jen shouting. I came up and she had it in her hand. She had found it standing up vertically on its narrow edge between two rocks down by her feet.
Under the water diving I’d been praying that we’d find the rings. Jen had too. When we waded out of the lake, with both of them on my finger where they belonged, another swimmer who was watching us told us she had said a prayer. This is only natural for us. We needed help. I’m not that great a swimmer. I can barely dive.
I don’t possess underwater skills. I don’t know why things happen like this, except that when they do, and I turn to faith, in some way God chooses to build on that faith.
Many years ago a similar instance happened in the dead of winter when Jen’s wedding ring had loose prongs that we were unaware of and her diamond fell out in the snow by our street. That’s right, in the snow, by the curb. I think I wrote about that too, over a decade ago, in my previous article. Anyway, we found the diamond, in the dark. Jen spotted it, winking at her out of the snow pile.
Some things that are lost are meant to be found. Some things are meant to be together. Some people. I guess that some days are meant to contain both the sweetness of blueberries and tart, sharp taste of loss. Also, the unforgettable taste of gratefulness, of faith.
Somehow, mixed into all of this, is the desire to help and give assistance, the care for and about your problems by complete strangers or acquaintances that seems to happen around Ely all the time, year round. These kids that gave us googles, helped us search, just showing that they cared.
Sure, we found the rings. I’m indescribably grateful. We discovered confirmation of something else though, that was even more beautiful than seeing both rings back on my finger. We were shown again the power and grace of community, the fact that when you need help the most, it is not just available, it shows up. Kid’s love to dive and get stuff off the bottom of pools, of lakes, and they always have goggles. Adults rarely do. Just what we needed, when we needed it.
Answers to prayer aren’t just what we ask. They are what we really need.
I’m glad that I don’t decide on those things.
