An incident occurred a few weeks ago that gave me a new perspective on religious symbols such as the many saints which dominate the Catholic religion's teachings. My mom and I stopped one Sunday on our route between Los Alamos and Farmington, at the spot regionally known as "The Tee pees" and also known as the casino on 550. We usually stop frequently when we travel together to give us both a break, either to walk around a bit, or to have something to eat.
The casino has a small restaurant with friendly, if not efficient, staff. It took us about 60 minutes to order, receive, and eat our burger and hot dog. It seemed like we were there quite a while and as we readied ourselves for continuing on our way, I reached into my purse for my car keys and discovered them gone! I rushed to the restroom and checked all the stalls and the top of the towel dispensing machine but, no luck. I rushed outside to my car to check whether the keys were locked inside and they weren't visible, either in the car or anywhere else in the parking lot. Panic set in as I rushed back inside to ask the security guard if anyone had found car keys. No one had and as I ran back to the restrooms to check once again, my mind raced to the next steps I might take - calling a locksmith and having him travel 100 miles to the tee pees to get my car open and a key to start it. How much would this end up costing, especially on Father's Day?
Back at the restroom a sign was posted, "Closed for cleaning", but I proceeded inside to ask the attendant if she had found car keys. She replied she hadn't and as I stepped outside into the hallway, a young woman with her daughter stood waiting. She asked if the restroom was really closed and I replied it was, I had just been inside looking for lost car keys. The woman sympathized and suggested I ask St. Anthony to return my keys. To humor her I said out loud, "St. Anthony, please help me find my car keys!" I smiled at the woman, still planning my strategy to get out of this predicament, and as I headed back outside to once again search the parking lot the security guard approached me saying, "Are you the lady who lost her keys?" What do you know, he had my car keys in his hand and he thrust them toward me, saying someone had just turned them in. I asked where they had been found and he said he didn't know, someone just dropped them off with security.
It may have been a coincidence, but a week later I tried asking St. Anthony to return a golf ball which had appeared to go into the well of a tree and once again, St. Anthony came through. After I searched and searched for the golf ball to no avail, I threw out another ball to use, then asked St. Anthony to return my ball. I looked up and noticed my original golf ball about 10 feet in back of the tree. It had only looked like the ball went into the tree's well! All this is a little spooky for a nonbeliever like myself, but today I consider St. Anthony my special friend.
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