The Petrified Wood Speaks
A Lesson on Following Visionary Direction
Before I go to sleep every night, I make sure to touch a piece of petrified wood my grandfather gave me when I was twelve years old. It is about five inches long and one and a half inches wide, polished on top. He purchased it for me from the gift shop of the Petrified National Forest in Arizona when we were there many years ago. I have kept it by my bedside ever since.
In 1995 I had a very powerful mystical experience that involved this piece of wood (which looks like a polished stone). I was living in St. Paul, Minnesota and one night I dreamed that I heard a very loud, high-pitched buzzing sound. I experienced myself wake up from the noise, but in truth, I was still dreaming. In this waking dream state, I looked for the source of the sound and noticed that the petrified wood was vibrating on the nightstand.
It was creating a buzzing sound and as its vibration became stronger and louder, the buzzing sound turned into a human voice. It was the voice of my grandfather. He said, “Go to Arizona now and purchase land.” I was so startled that I really did wake up this time and felt energy surging though my whole body. Hearing his voice brought on tears. When I looked at the petrified wood it had mysteriously cracked in two, each side equal in size. I almost fainted at the sight. Knocked out by this vision, I had no choice but to go straight to the airport and head to Arizona.
I met a real estate agent who suggested three interesting properties, each in different parts of the state. One of the properties he described seemed like the one my grandfather was asking me to obtain, but I resisted going to take a look because it was too far away from a city. I am a city person and prefer not being away from piano tuners, ice cream, and good restaurants. I went to look at the other properties first because they were near the city limits.
When I finally arrived to the third property, the realtor said that he had bad news. It sold the day before to some kind of organization. He said it would probably be turned into a resort or something like that. I looked at the land and could not believe what I saw: 150 acres of Sonoran Desert with hills covered with majestic saguaros. The Sonoran Desert, especially when filled with saguaros, is my favorite landscape in the world. The sellers had dropped the price to less than what you’d pay for a small city lot in Tucson. I was a fool for messing around and not being fully obedient to my vision. I have regretted that moment of delay and indecisiveness ever since.
Meanwhile in Greece…
Twenty-two years later, Hillary and I were on the road and spent the night in an Airbnb in a small town that was near that lost parcel of magical land. We were reading a brochure about a local Greek Orthodox monastery. It said that in 1995 a man named Elder Ephraim from Athos had a vision of St. Anthony the Great who told him to purchase land in Arizona and build a Greek Orthodox monastery. He did not hesitate and immediately began his journey to Arizona, accompanied by other monks. They were walking in the Sonoran Desert when they all heard church bells ringing amidst the saguaros.
After reading this story, Hillary and I headed to the monastery. Yes, you likely guessed that it was the same parcel of land I had dreamed. They purchased it the day before I showed up. We found out that miracles have been reported there and that people make pilgrimages to meet the old monk who is called a doctor of the soul. The presence of that monastery has drawn a number of Greeks to the area, and when you visit the older women sell delicious baklava and spinach pies out front.
The moral of this story is that we learned to not hesitate when the rope pulls or the vision directs or an anointed pointer points. Act without hesitation. Beethoven, according to some sources, moved over eighty times during the thirty-five-year period he lived in Vienna. Note: Hillary teased me about mentioning this fact, suggesting that Beethoven’s real estate adventures were more likely due to his shifting temperament and job insecurity rather than visionary direction. Perhaps it was acoustically driven?
Whatever the case, whether you are called to rearrange your living room every month, frequently call the moving van like Ludwig van Beethoven, or walk many miles around the same dwelling place, obey the higher call without concern for what others—including the Greek chorus in your head—might think. The bells are ringing somewhere for you. Perhaps it’s where you are now standing, but you have forgotten how to tune in and hear them. Get ready to act when divine mystery calls.
– Bradford Keeney with Hillary Keeney, April 18, 2019