Caught by 11 Nuns and a Snowdrift

Two things to remember. I was tired and anxious. Not a good combination.

I had just woken up at the Yankton Sacred Heart hospital. I had been doing my CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education, there and for part of the requirements I was asked to do night duties as a chaplain every once in a while. This was one of those nights.

At the time I was serving a church in a small, rural town in South Dakota called Geddes, just 90 miles from Yankton. And I wanted to get home! I quickly put on my clothes and headed out to the car, and as I stepped out of the hospital my anxiety went up times ten. It was snowing! No, it just wasn’t snowing, it had been snowing. There was like 6 inches on the ground and the wind was picking up. If I didn’t get in that car this instant and head for home, I would be stuck in Yankton for 3 days! Cyndy, my spouse, and my two young children would be heartbroken. I was on a mission. I was going to make it home!

But before I could drive, I needed to clear off my windshield and my headlights. I got out my car scraper and brush and went to work. Windshield cleared? Check! Now those headlights. As I walked to the front of the car I noticed a small step. I tried to reach around to get brush off my lights without taking the step, but eventually I just took the step. And then it happened. That step that I thought was just a foot down, was actually a ten-foot drop! It was a sunken garden!

It was here that the movie scene effect kicked in. You know the one where everything is played in slow motion? Well, that was me as my body slowly propelled through the snowflakes and I landed, flat on my back, in the sunken garden!

And for just a moment I thought I might be dead. And you know what? It didn’t seem so bad. I felt like one of those snow angels you make as a kid after a beautiful snow fall. I was at peace.

But then I came too. And the first thing I thought to do was to pray. And my prayer was simple and direct: “Dear God, please tell me no one saw me do this!”

Just then I opened my eyes and looked toward the hospital. And there in the windows of the cafeteria were 11 nuns with their eyes as big as moons and their jaws wide open. Suddenly one of them opened the door and ran out to see if I was ok, and before I knew it, I was surrounded by 11 nuns!

My worst nightmare! How embarrassing was this?!?!

Believe it or not, I was OK! Luckily, my fall had been softened by a 2 ½ foot snowdrift! Thank you, South Dakota! And after a cup of coffee, a donut, and a circle prayer by the nuns. I headed home, and guess what? As soon as I got out of Yankton, it stopped snowing.

All that anxiety for nothing!

Now, here is the hard part. Every time I entered that hospital, even if it was like 20 years after this moment, one of those nuns would point to me and smile as they asked, “Weren’t you the guy who fell down the sunken garden in that snowstorm?”

Yep....that’s me.

Richard Rohr prays for one humbling moment every day. Why? Because it seems that often human beings only learn when they are humbled enough to listen. He jokes that God has always answered that prayer with a yes!

The lesson I learned that day was slow down...slow down...slow down. Especially if you’re worn out and anxious!

Your friend and pastor, finally (after 30 years) thankful for well-placed snowdrifts, and the compassionate sisters of the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery, Brook