Let me preface by saying that I had the most basic Catholic education growing up: baptism, first communion, confirmation. Mom wanted to give us some religious education so that later we could make up our own minds about how we wanted to worship, if at all. I pretty much made up my mind during confirmation class. They taught us that, in order to love and respect God, we should fear Him. What the hell? 

I disliked all this religious crap anyway, but that was just the icing on the cake. I swore I’d never go back to class. Screw getting confirmed, it didn’t mean anything to me anyway. 

My cousin talked me into finishing the last few classes and getting confirmed. If I wasn’t confirmed I couldn’t get married in the church, at that age I figured I had better not burn any bridges. Since then, I have not been back to church except for weddings and funerals. Both of my marriages were performed by judges.

I have since considered my self as a non-believer, mostly because I know deep in my heart that what the so-called Christians are going on about is totally and completely wrong.

A little over a year ago (mid-October) Mr. Donn and I took a trip to Park City, Kentucky. Why Kentucky, you ask? Well, we own a time-share and had been trying to get a place in New Orleans with no luck. (Fortunate really, hmmm?) So, we decided to go to Kentucky; Don wanted to see the horses run at Lexington, and we could explore the caves near where we were staying.

We took off early Saturday, had a leisurely drive and arrived at Diamond’s Cavern Resort mid-afternoon. Tourist season over, the resort was quiet. We got some groceries and settled in for the evening.

Sunday we drove up to Lexington to watch the horses, boy was that place packed! After a great day, we discussed religion and church greed on the way home. Don believes in God but doesn’t practice or worship. We tend to have some good, interesting conversations.

On Monday we decided to skip the tour at Diamond Caverns and go on up to Onyx Cave/Guntown Mountain. At Onyx Cave, the sign on the door said they would be back in one hour. We drove up Old Mammoth Cave Road. This used to be the main drag to Mammoth Cave, before they built a new road, and as such has all the little touristy attractions, like Golgotha Hill Fun Park and Big Mike’s Rock Shop among others. The attractions are sort of rundown, probably had their heyday in the 70’s and, as we drove past, were mostly closed for the season. Big Mike’s was open; we decided to go in and look around. (I have an interest in the metaphysical properties of mineral and gem stones.) There were a lot of dusty rocks, sand stone figurines from Mexico, slices of agate, the usual tourist-trap crap.

As we turned to leave, the woman behind the counter mentioned that the bookends and the mineral/gemstone necklaces were on sale. I purchased a crystal and hematite one for my co-worker. While I was paying for it, the woman asked me if I liked the hematite. I said I did but I was buying the necklace for a friend. She said, the hematite is a very nice stone. We talked more about stones and the metaphysical aspects of them. Suddenly, my body started to buzz. That’s the only way I can describe the feeling. We talked about healing with stones. I explained that I was studying it but not really practicing, but I purchased and sold minerals and gems at craft fairs and such. I mentioned that I noticed how much children seemed to like handling the stones, as if they were attracted to them. We talked about how children are very receptive to things that we later teach them aren’t true. The longer we talked, the more I buzzed. She told me about healing energy and asked me to put my left palm up to hers, but not so as they touched. She asked me if I believed in God, I hesitated and said I believed in my God. (Now I need to note here that with anyone else, at any other time, the answer would have been No, and I would have been out the door. My God? Who is my God?) She was taken aback for a minute, but then said, “Yeah, I believe in God, but he or she can appear as 7 spirits. I believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Trinity. But God doesn’t exist the way we’ve been taught, it’s not like that at all. It doesn’t involve all that greed.”

She talked about her perception of God as she moved her palm in a circular motion in front of mine, my palm started to buzz. She told me about healing energy, that if I need healing I would feel the energy move through my body. My lower arm, from my elbow to my wrist started to buzz twice as fast as the rest of my body, but didn’t move any farther.

She told me God wanted her to give me a message (yeah, yeah, I can see you all rolling your eyes!) “He wants you to let it all go, open your heart and believe.”

I’m not entirely clear on everything she said. I was suddenly emotionally overwhelmed, tears ran down my cheeks. She told me to come back and see her when I needed her. Don and I walked out; I realized that I didn’t know her name. At this exact moment, Don asked me if I was going to ask for it. I went back in, we introduced ourselves. Her name is Cora. She said she knew me when I walked in.