Divine Intervention: A Miracle of Francis

I've been reading a Tai Chi book. This sentence, if you know me, will either seem ordinary or strange to you. Like, "Oh you're into Kung Fu so it is natural that you would read a Kung fu book."
Or.
"Why the hell are you reading a book about Kung Fu when you are already a master at Kung Fu?"
It was my Kung Fu side that was attracted to glance through it, just to look at what other people do and encourage myself to practice what I know. In fact, usually whatever exercise they do is some variation of something I have done, but have left to the side. And so it usually does teach me something.
However it was my writer's side that decided to actually bring the book home.

The section that stood out most to me was the formulaic story about how the author defeats an attacker on the street easily. At least this author is honest about the fact that just because it turned out that way, doesn't mean it will always turn out that way.

Well I'm going to tell a story about how I was defeated... by Noah who is currently five. I don't think that Noah's Kung Fu skills are better than mine. And even if they were the size difference between us is too great to make a real difference. Noah defeated me because I defeated myself and because I believe he was protected by an unseen hand.

One night, getting ready for bed, Noah was being so misbehaved in terms of not brushing his teeth, not taking a bath, not getting dressed that it was now 10:00, an hour past bed time and we had started getting ready at 7:00pm. This was ridiculous and it hadn't been a school day so I had been dealing with similar issues all day. I had had it. I was sick. Mommy was sick in bed and couldn't even move.

I shook with rage and moved to grab Noah in anger. Miraculously, my thumb somehow jammed on him so that he was tickled and was laughing whereas my thumb was sprained and I was injured enough that I had to calm down.

Who saved him?

I attribute the miracle to my Uncle Francis who had recently passed away. Most people would scoff at the idea that my Uncle Francis was a Saint. But if you really look at a lot of the Saints, there are some that were hardly Saints/ And I also believe that you kind bind two spirits together. In other words, my Uncle Francis, automatically gets the powers of Francis of Assisi (whom Jonah is baptized after but the rascally behavior that Noah was exhibiting was up to my Uncle Francis's speed. That's why I think it was him.) Plus the Pope is Francis and a ton of kids being confirmed are being named Francis so in the spiritual word of thoughts prayers, affirmations and vows, Francis is very powerful and popular right now.
What's that have to do with my Uncle?

Well Santa Clause is a pretty big deal right? But he is really two different St. Nicholas's (Nicholai?) Odin, and Father Christmas all in one. It doesn't have to be that one is the reincarnation of the other and all that, though that is how the Asia would justify putting these different people together as one.

But Religion and story telling isn't a Science.

I'm just saying, my Uncle Francis reached over and protected Noah from my anger and maybe some of his power is attributed to a ton of people praying and affirming their belief system in the name of Francis. Just like I believe if you burn money to you ancestors, a wandering spirit can pick some up too, and that doesn't necessarily mean that your ancestor doesn't get his or her money too. I mean, it's all pretend anyway, and in another way, all real.

Anyway, so here I am, a Kung Fu master and I was defeated by my five year old son, physically. He laughed and was having a good time about it. I told him he was lucky as hell and that indeed he had been protected in this instance by Uncle Francis. I could see that this mischievious behavior was the rebirth of my Uncle's personality in him.

"Who is Uncle Francis?" he said

"He took you into the ocean in Florida and held you when you fell asleep and kept holding you even though he really had to go to the bathroom. He held you for two whole hours until you woke up."

My thumb is still slightly injured.