The Sign

     So it is time for a story. Once upon a time, Nayka was walking her dog in her beautiful, quaint neighborhood in upstate NY, meditating and appreciating nature and the stillness of life around her, when upon looking towards the sky, she noticed a pair of workmen boots dangling over a telephone wire, clearly in the center part of the road!. Now if you have been on my newsletter list for some time, you will remember that my father, who recently passed away, wore his workmen boots proudly. I thought this was the most magnificent sign one could get from their beloved in death: it was clear that these boots could not have landed on that telephone wire so easily. In my rush of excitement, I hurried back home, dragging my mother out to take a look at the boots herself. She, too, was amazed by the sight as well. I called friends and relatives, sharing the sign I had received as if proof that the afterlife was there right in front of everyone if they so chose to see.....

     One friend I called, "Jennifer" was pausing after I shared with her my story. She said, "Nayka, I hate to break your excitement but there's another possible meaning behind your father's dangling work boots on the wire...."

     "What POSSIBLE other meaning could they have?"

     "Well in the sixties, it was a common sign that when drugs are available in a particular neighborhood, they throw a pair of shoes on a telephone line, signaling that they are available close by....It is most likely that a drug dealer lives in your neighborhood."

     My face froze. I was left speechless. Perhaps the obvious had been TOO obvious after all. I cannot really know for sure if HER sign is the right sign or my sign is the right one. I can imagine my father having a good laugh over the scenario below him, as only he would appreciate the double meaning of such "signs." But in my thoughts a month later, and as I drive and walk past those boots daily in my neighborhood, I think back to how we, as individuals, can choose to look at the signs of our lives and have various meanings behind them based on who we are asking. Do you choose your signs to be positive or negative meanings? Do you interpret your partner's meanings to be positive or negative? Do you even look for the signs at all?