Between March 6th and May 6th in 2016, I must have driven up and down Interstate 65 between Chicago and Indianapolis a dozen times.
Over my lifetime, I have probably made that
trip a couple hundred times.
Those two
particular months, though, were the last two months of my Ma's life.
When I make that drive, the radio is part of
the routine. The Chicago stations last about sixty miles before they dissolve
into static. Ten minutes later, the Indiana stations take over. Before long you
will definitely hear John Mellencamp. By the time I get to Lafayette, I have
usually landed on WTTS, 92.3 out of Bloomington and Indianapolis.
They play their share of
"Pink Houses" and "Jack & Diane,” but during those two
months, there was one song they played over and over again. Coldplay's "Adventure of a Lifetime."
At the time, I couldn't have told you
Coldplay from Oasis. It was just another song. Except it wasn't. Every trip to
see my mother slipping a little farther away seemed to have that song playing
through the speakers of my Chevy Suburban.
Now, you Chalkheads already know about
Cecilia Marie.
You know how she still wakes me
up at 2:22 in the morning with an "I love you." You know how she
leaves dimes in the strangest places for me to find. On a train platform when
I'm having a rough morning, beneath a barstool when loneliness sneaks in, or
lying in the middle of the street while I'm jaywalking.
I suppose "auspicious" is
the right word.
Well...add this song to the
list of mysteries from heaven.
It has been eleven years
now, yet somehow this Coldplay song still seems to find me. It comes on the
radio while I'm driving to work. It shows up on the kitchen radio while I'm
making breakfast. It plays when I'm driving west of Mannheim Road to pick up or
drop off the Shepkids.
Why this song?
My ma should be Ave Maria. She should be Gloria of The Bells or Rainbow Connection.
Not a funky dance song from some British
guys, but I'm not complaining. She can keep dropping dimes in my path. She can
keep waking me up at 2:22 and if she wants to request the DJ to play "Adventure of a Lifetime" for
her son living in the Divorced Dad District...
...I'm all for it.
Because that is the funny thing
about faith. Sometimes it arrives through Scripture. Sometimes through a prayer
and sometimes it comes through an old song on the radio at exactly the moment
you needed to hear it.
Go
out there today, you gorgeous Cheeseheads.
Pay
attention.
Look for the signs and
know we are all living the adventure of a lifetime.
