You may have noticed in this picture, and in Dylan's birthday pictures Tod was wearing one of these shirts as well, that the shirt says "Body Piercing Saved My Life." Like most people, my best friend, Marlene, thought it was just a funny-saying-on-a-shirt sort of thing but it is actually not although people's reaction to what it says is funny indeed. You see, Tod has no piercings - none that you can see or can NOT see either. When people see none though, they start making funny faces. You know they're wondering what the saying means but, especially, if there are any piercings, where they might be. What they're wondering is, "nipples? privates?" :-) Ha ha ha Alas, no such thing as my guy never even pierced his ear as some guys are apt to do in high school at least. Anyway, here's the back of the shirt. This is when people "ooh" and "ah" and end up buying shirts from him.

Isn't this shirt cool? It's with the times of today and all the body piercing and what not but it tells the message of Jesus' life - that by his crucifixion he saved us from our sins. (More on this and my beliefs in another post soon.)

People are so surprised by this shirt. When they start making the funny faces, Tod already knows to just say "You have to see the back to get it." and so he turns around and they're like "Whoa! Cool! Can I buy one of those from you?" A couple of times people have even given a donation to the church. So, Tod goes to the church office with shirt orders and checks which is VERY cool 'cause that money allows our church to make even more of a difference in our community which is just a wonderful thing.

The funniest thing of all is no one would've pegged us for being churchgoers in our youth. Never! But that's another story as is the story of how we came to South Miami Lutheran Church - and to church at all - and home to love and to our hearts and to a God-centered life. I can tell you this though and that is that it has been the coolest of full-circles for us both and that it's not at all religion as usual. So, stay tuned!

There's a name for what I've got! Clairaudience. Have you ever heard of that? I hadn't until today. Check this out:

"Clairaudience, which means clear listening, is the ability to hear sounds not physically audible. A person with the gift of clairaudience perceives psychic information as auditory resonance and may hear angelic voices, music, or other sounds." "Clairaudience, in effect means 'clear hearing' and is a term that is used for psychic hearing abilities. It is a form of channeling. A clairaudient person will receive psychic information in the form of words or ideas that are perceived and interpreted through the normal 'hearing centres' within the brain. Sometimes a clairaudient person will receive this information by hearing voices internally (in the mind), or receive ideas and hear sounds. Other clairaudients may receive information by actually hearing a person speak, as if they were in the room next to them. "

Go figure! You learn something new every day. I love that about life, by the way! So, clairaudience. I don't see dead people and I don't hear them either, actually, but I do hear things, information. It has happened to me more than once. For example, in the early morning (6 AM or so) of September 11th (yes, that September 11th, the 2001 September 11th), I told Tod something terrible was going to happen that day but I did not know when or where. I told him it would be a global event though and that I was very anxious because it was going to be something major. He asked me, "how do you know?" and I told him "I just heard it, like in my ear, someone or something just keeps telling me, I keep hearing it in my ear." I kept just hearing stuff like "something major is going to happen today, something global, you'll see, you'll see." I thought "what the hell?" I had heard other stuff before but minor things so I always chucked it to ESP, intuition and what not. I still say it's intuition but maybe it's a little more than that. Who knows, huh? Anyway, I find it interesting, especially now that I found a name to it. It came to me, by the way, via one of my daily newsletters which talked about Clairvoyance, or clear seeing, Clairaudience, which means clear listening, and Clairsentient, or clear feeling, which is being able to sense physical, emotional, and spiritual energy.

I remember talking to one of my sisters on September 11th. She called me that morning and said "Did you see this? Did you see what's going on?" And I told her, "Yes, I actually knew before it happened that something really bad was going to happen in the world today. I just didn't know what exactly or where." And she just said "Of course you knew, because you're connected like that, man! You've always been." And indeed, I've always been. I just get a feeling on things and then the information comes to me. My other major recent prediction was the day, date and time Bush declared the war on Iraq. I told Tod "It will happen this date, that time, we'll be watching this on TV and it'll get interrupted and we'll be told we're at war." and sure enough. Tod was incredulous. Now if I could just get those lottery numbers, we'd be ALL good! :-)