I thought the God Wink really interesting when I heard about it and it got me thinking. I remember standing for hours on the mall outside Buckingham Palace waiting for a glimpse of Princess Diana at her wedding. I was in love with her, the whole world was in love with her and I desperately wanted to see her in person.
At the time I was a chef at a 5 star hotel in London and happy in my position. But standing on the mall waiting for the royal procession I had this sudden thought come into my mind. " I want to be a chef at Buckingham Palace" Now where did that come from ? When I got home that evening I wrote to the palace for a job and within a few weeks got accepted.
Not long after I met Princess Diana for the first time and was amazed at her beauty. I became a familiar face to her in the royal kitchens and when she seperated from Prince Charles (some 11 years later) requested I move to Kensington Palace to become her chef. I was with her for four years as her personal chef up until the day of the tragic accident.
Takling to Princess Diana every day about her charity work inspired me. So much so that after her death I moved to Dallas, Texas and have so far helped raise over 2 million dollars for charities. Including writing a book called Eating Royally - recipes and remembrances of a palace kitchen. I donated all of my advance and royalties to two of the princess's favorite charitable goals - because it was the "right thing to do" I now do charity events around the country through my website www.theroyalchef.com and believe none of this could have happened if one day God hadn't winked.
Just loved all the Godwink stories and I am throughly going to enjoy being a part of this group.Thank you my Lord for finding such a wonderful writer has SQuire Rushnell. He is a great inspiration to me.
I think my problem with Godwinks is that I need to pay more attention to the fact that when we are shown a path that happens to go in a direction we want to go, it doesn't mean we are supposed to judge what we are to do according to what WE want, but by what God would or wouldn't want. I've had a few relationships that I thought were meant to be romantic that maybe shouldn't have been, just because I happened to be single and they did too. (Well, one of them wasn't, it turned out) Yet the coincidences leading me to them were obviously more than accident. Maybe we would be good friends if we hadn't assumed meeting someone means it should be romantic if you're single. I'll always wonder where those paths would have led if I would've followed them completely and correctly.
Once, my friend and her 'other half' at the time decided to stop by, were going to his sister's. His sister is married to my uncle, and we decided I would go along too. For some reason, they decided to stop at his friends house, a friend that I realized some time later (after I was seeing a lot of him) hardly ever hung out with the guy who ended up being my Godwink link.
Another guy, I knew after that, through the internet. I had been walking home after talking to someone (a bad date, wondering how long to take to say goodbye and when I could leave) I left at the right minute to be able to run into someone I knew when I was halfway home. That person talked for several minutes and said he had to go, right as my cousin was driving by. She gave me two chat names and asked me to send them the message that the reason she hadn't been online was because she had no computer at that moment. Well, I ended up becoming chat friends, then more than friends, with one of them. If I would have gotten out of the bad date just half a minute sooner, I wouldn't have talked to the person who kept me there until my cousin (a cousin I rarely see, btw) saw me.
Then there is my husband. I was using a laundromat to do my laundry at that time. On that day I seem to remember questioning myself....should I do laundry now and get it finished, or wait until later in the day. I decided to get it out of the way. He was the only one there. A truck driver, he used his parents exra bedroom when he wasn't in the truck. And he used a laundromat when his clothes were piling up, to get more done at once. He likes to play Keno (but knows basically when to stop) and there was a place to play beside the laundromat. He played while his clothes were drying. He came back from playing, I was still the only one there, so he had to tell me about winning over $1000, and used that as a way to ask me out. I told him someone else already asked me for Saturday. He said, "What about Sunday?" That was a little over 5 years ago, at a time when I was telling God that I was tired of being alone, and he was having bad lifestyle habits, telling God that if he shouldn't continue then give him a sign or something. Then he met me, a non-smoker, non-drinker lol Also, he had been married before but had no children. He was 36 with one brother who is married but can't have children. But their parents, (in their late 50's early 60's at the time) especially their Mom, wanted grandchildren and I think was at the point of believing they would never have any. We were married Feb. 2004 and our daughter was born Nov. 2004. We somehow conceived her within a couple months of being married even though I have never been pregnant in the 4 years after she was born. (The only birth control being her LOL...If we even try to hug, she is between us!) Well I guess it could also be because he's not always home, but still. She was like their miracle baby just because they waited so long.
Another Godwink is that she was born 3 weeks before we expected. I started labor Thanksgiving and had her the next day. This meant that my husband was already home (he was usually away for 5 days at a time). So he got to be there for it. (I got to lose my 3 weeks of vacation time between my last day of work and the due date).
He recently bought his own (old) truck. He was just saying a few days ago that every time something breaks on it, it's after he gets home, making doing repairs easier and less expensive.
Wow I didn't know this would be so long...sorry! Anyway....when God sends a link, a path, follow Gods way, not just your own. I'd like to learn more about the topic of times that are obvious links and paths, that might not have been followed correctly. Maybe that can be the next book. It would be God Blinks lol
Laurie Sue...love your godwink story! It's a perfect example of how godwinks and divine alignment are delivered to each of us, at just the right moment, to light up our lives! The Godwink Guy
What a lovely little story, Laurie Sue... It's amazing what God does in each life... so many need to learn to "listen to the quiet", and "see with both eyes open", in order to appreciate the many wonderful things God opens to each of us, each day. Thank you for your contribution.
And thank you, SQuire, for this forum... eye LOOOOVE the expression "Godwink"...
What a wonderful Godwink Laurie Sue! As SQuire Rushnell says, "we are all on a grand GPS. . . God's Positioning System and those divine alignments are God's sweet way of saying "Hey kid, I'm thinking of you right now!"
Yesterday I was thinking about my ordination as an interfaith minister and how sometimes, in the hectic pace of being an editor at a fast-paced website, it seems as if my vows and training are a million miles away. I took a moment to reflect on this yesterday and placed the words to the Beautiful song/hymn "Here I Am" on my desk. It was something we sang at my ordination and holds a dear place in my heart. I thought of years as a full-time minister and wondered if I'd lost touch. There was a great longing in my heart to reconnect.
I felt called to leave the office early. I promised my husband I would, for once, get out by 5:30 pm. He came to pick me up.
By 5:25 PM, there was a major issue that of course needed my attention ... but I worked it out to deal with things in the car, on the way to our favorite diner.
We got there early, for us, and sat down, shocked we were there before it was dark out. :-)
No sooner did we order then our dear friends from seminary walked in (out of the blue, wink-wink) and with them our 97 year old spiritual teacher - the wonderful and visionary rabbi who founded the seminary my husband and I trained in. He was our teacher -- along with many great clergy from different faiths. He introduced me to my husband I2 years ago, and also officiated our wedding!
Our friends, shocked to see us too, exclaimed, "We were guided here... we usually go to a different diner!"
I ran up to Rabbi and hugged him and said, "It's a Godwink!"
We all sat down and shared a meal, beginning and ending in prayer, and filled with love and laughter. We left feeling renewed.
God had indeed winked at us all. As I sat across the table from these people I love so much I realized what a blessing it was that we were all together in that moment in time.
I realized that my sense of reflection, my leaving work early, the challenges that tried to keep me from leaving, us getting to the restaurant early and and our friends deciding to go there on that particular night was all a divine collaboration to reconnect me to a part of myself that I had not been focusing on for a while.
My name is Carol and I experienced my first GodWink on March 14, 2003. My son had just died on 3-9-03 and my family was still at my home. I woke early that morning and decided to write in my journal. There was a pot of flowers on the floor and a couple of them were hanging below the others. As I was writing, I saw movement, looked up and the two flowers were barely moving, but moving. As I sat there for a moment watching them, I just smiled. About 8 am my brother and sister were sitting with me and I told them about the flowers and they both said, sure Carol if you say so. God showed them one even better. My brother was lying on the floor and my sister and I were sitting in chairs, All of a sudden the storm door opened. There was no wind, nothing. My brother asked what the heck was that? I laughed and told him it was Johnny coming in to go to the bathroom. There was no way that the door could have opened all by itself!!! What an awesome God!!! I have plenty more!!!
SQuire - I love your books, When God Winks and When God Winks at You. I have so many stories I would love to share with you. There is a reason for the picture I have chosen. One month before my mother passed in 2006 my father and I found a dead monarch butterfly on the ground in front of his barber shop. The shop was closed that day, but my Dad insisted that they were open. As we turned away from the shop, we both noticed the monarch butterfly on the ground. I have never picked up a butterfly before, but I knew I had to keep this one. We told my mother about the beautiful monarch we found. A month later, my Dad and I were leaving the cemetery on the day of Mom's burial. A very large monarch butterfly flew to the center of the windshield of my car and stayed for 10-15 seconds. My Dad and I knew it was a sign that Mom was safe and happy! Many more things happened involving butterflies and I did some research. The monarch butterfly is a symbol for love, hope and everlasting life.
