THE TRIQUETRA OF LIFE: Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness

BUT THE SNOW REFUSED TO STOP

A Chapter Twenty-One Excerpt

Path Perilous: My Search for God and the Miraculous

A True Story on the Day it Happened

November 22, 1963

Soon after the 12:30 p.m. broadcast of JFK’s assassination, I walked to nearby downtown New Haven and wandered about as if moving through the hollow shell of a world suddenly shattered. Snow drifted down in slow, uncaring flakes, blanketing and muffling the city and my thoughts with it. Every nearby sound felt distant; every face passing me seemed to blur. A tightness gathered in my chest—an inward pressure that had started the moment I heard the news from Dallas. All I knew was that my reality had split in two, and I was stepping through a threshold I didn’t understand.

At a downtown street corner, I looked up, pointed at the sky, and ordered the snow to stop falling. Not as a whim, but with the hard edge of a command I expected to be obeyed. I stood there, staring at the dark, brooding clouds and the snowflakes drifting down in quiet defiance, waiting for them to halt midair. A few pedestrians slowed, casting wary glances as they detoured around me.

Early on that Friday afternoon, dazed and disoriented, I managed to walk back to the corner bus stop near where I lived. I heard bells tolling at the nearby Catholic church and stopped to watch. Men were draping black crepe over its doors. Women in veiled hats streamed into its arched entries. The pews were packed with young and old alike. I saw handkerchiefs lifted to tear-streaked cheeks and heard soft, echoing sobs. I slipped into the last pew and began praying for a world gone mad.

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From the memoir-in-progress, nearing publication:
Path Perilous: My Search for God and the Miraculous
—a spiritual epic for truth-seekers, contemplative mystics, and all who long for God.

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