This is a true story, word for word. I still don’t know what to make of it and probably will never fully understand what happened.
It’s winter 2003 and I’ve taken a trip down to the Tatra mountains in Poland with a friend over from the UK. In fact, Robin’s not really my friend but Lidia’s and we’d planned this trip together until Lidia got sick. We decide to go anyway and see what turns up, after all it’s only a couple of days.
This morning is clear and bright after a heavy fall of snow overnight and we head off early into the mountains for the air, freshness and isolation. I’ve been here several times before so I know the path we’re planning to take though before it was always in Summer or Autumn. If all goes well we’ll get some great views and the blue skies look to be set for the day.
We’re the first into the mountains and the fresh snow makes it heavy going as we have to create the trail through the white blanket. There are no other tracks and it’s quite magical seeing only our footsteps trailing away behind us, the only sign that human beings exist in this world. The trees are laden, the ground is completely covered and the mountains shine in the sunlight. And the going gets even tougher as we start to climb, the path well marked so no danger of getting lost.
Robin shows signs of nervousness. He explains that with people he has no fear and can confront the hottest situation with ease. In the physical world he’s not so sure of himself and it takes all my powers of reassurance and persuasion to get him to follow me. I know the way and I know it’s safe.
Looking back across the valley we can see the path we’ve taken and not another soul in the mountains.
We are truly alone and I love the feeling.
We stop for a quick drink and sandwich and are both astonished to see a young girl coming towards us along the path we had just taken. She ignores us, walks past us and we watch her disappear around a bend in the track. One of us remarks how fast she must have walked or how blind we must have been not to see her in the valley below.
We set out again, now following the single footprints from the girl and she is now coming back down the mountain towards us. We all stop and she says something in Polish but I don’t understand fully. There are no warning words as far as I can tell, but that is not very far. I nod as though I understand and she carries on back down the path.
Robin and I decide to go ahead at least to where she stopped to see whatever it was she saw. This takes about one minute as she’d stopped just around the corner in front of a printed sign. My Polish is reasonable and again I can make out no warning signs and the placard seems harmless. I suggest we carry on ahead but this time Robin puts his foot down and insists we go back, much to my annoyance. I’m sure it’s safe, I have no idea why the girl turned round and I want to continue.
But there is no debate about it, Robin will not go on if the girl would not and he will not return alone, so I agree.
The girl has disappeared.
We can see the whole valley in front of us and there is no sign of her. There are no footprints, other than ours, going in any direction. There are none following the path up or down. It is as though she had never existed. We look everywhere but can find no sign. Maybe she followed exactly our footprints, I suggest.
At one point on the way up we had deviated a little from the path to see something and then returned to the path a few metres ahead. There is no reason at all why she would have followed our small detour, and there were no tracks filling in the few metres we had missed.
At the time we both concluded that we had been saved by an angel. I still believe this. If she had not come, out of the blue, for those few minutes then I’m sure I would have persuaded Robin to continue along the path. I was wrong and that would have been a bad, possibly fatal, decision.
You may not be comfortable with the word ‘angel’ or ‘miracle’, so use whatever word suits you. You may be sure there is a ‘rational’ explanation and if that works for you, then no problem. The fact is, I’m sure that the few minutes that girl was in my life, saved it.
For me she was an angel and this was a miracle.
We were alone for hours and hours that morning. We saw no-one else all day, only her, in that moment, in that place.
Epilogue
A couple of days later I read in the news that a couple of hikers had been killed by an avalanche in the Tatras close to where we had been walking.
A couple of years later I was back in the same mountains in the Summer.
I took the same path we had taken that Winter, as I was curious to see the place of my ‘miracle’. At the point where we turned back, the path takes a sharp 90 degree turn up the mountainside into the trees. The signs are clearly painted onto the rocks and are unmissable. Except, that is, when there is snow on the ground.
The path ahead (the route I would have taken us) stops and enters onto dangerous scree slope, renowned (apparently) for the frequency of avalanches.
[...] Peatey presents Snow angel posted at Quantum Learning – nonviolent [...]
The human senses register what a person is ready and willing to experience. While this story covers “uncharted territory,” an unambiguous and compelling force has been known to appear in physical form to save lives. Many people relay similar stories which adds credibility to each one. The mind makes its necessary adjustments. That is, your emotions are a product of biochemistry, you conditioned perceptions and patterns of understanding events in your life. Some people crave explanations for mysteries. Other people disregard them or keep experiences to themselves. You have come to accept inner knowing. In your heart, you already know what saved you. Faith and trust confirm.
__________
Ian’s reply:
Reading your comment helped me see one of the fundamental flaws of the scientific methodology. It depends, among other things, on verifiable evidence. And verifiable means that for the evidence to be valid, the experience (or experiment) must be repeatable and the results obtained to be the same the second time around.
But life is not so neat and tidy and many of life’s experiences (such as my experience in the mountains) are simply not repeatable.