Wisdom teeth removal (part 2/2): a generous tooth fairy

This is the second part of the story about my younger son’s wisdom teeth removal. You can read part 1 here.

An unexpected gift

We had taken the four removed teeth home with us since they were whole. I scrubbed them clean and then decided to search for a container in which my son could keep them. I went to the pharmacy, described the situation and wanted to buy cylindrical plastic containers which are usually used for ointments. But the pharmacist said she could give me a metallic box for free. It had a pretty picture on the lid and I agreed to take it, feeling very grateful for this gift. My son was happy with this box and placed his wisdom teeth in there.

This was not only a gift for my son. Since the surgery was on my birthday, the fact that the surgery went well and this free metal box were also like birthday gifts for me.

My son made it through the next days with a lot of care, ice packs, pureed food, and sleeping with his head elevated.

A kick in the butt by the tooth fairy

A week after the surgery, the stitches had to get removed. On that day, my son came home later than usual from school. What had happened? The rear tire of his bike had a hole and was flat and therefore he had to walk half of the way home.

So, he took his older brother’s bike to go to the surgeon’s office. The thing is that his brother’s bike is much larger than his own bike. And since my younger son is already pretty tall, he found riding such a large bike way more comfortable than his old bike.

Then he had the stitches removed which was a bit uncomfortable again, but he endured the procedure and was very happy to be able to eat solid food again afterwards.

What a timing of circumstances! Why did the tire go flat exactly on the day when the removal of the stitches was scheduled? That seemed like a hint of the force behind the veil that it was time now to switch to a new bike. A kick in the butt by the tooth fairy.

Back in summer of 2021 when our older son got his new larger bike, we had asked our younger son whether he wanted one, too. But he said no. Back then he was still fine with his old smaller bike which he rode since he was in 5th grade.

So, I said, “You know, even though we never did this tooth fairy custom thing here in our family, I think that some kind of spirit thinks you deserve a gift after what you have gone through. That is why the tire of the bike burst just before you got the stitches out. I think we need to buy you a new large bike soon.” Now, he eagerly agreed.

But getting a new bike was not enough. He also wanted to change his school backpack to a new cool one.

And also his wallet and key pouch.

He felt so grown-up all of a sudden that everything had to be changed. Apparently, he had a generous tooth fairy. (But considering that our public health insurance here in Germany paid for (almost) the entire oral surgery, I won’t complain about money.)

The whole story reminded me of initiation rites which the young men undergo around puberty in some indigenous cultures (for example, as the ones which are vividly described in the mind-blowing, impressive book Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Some). Trying, painful, and scary. But once they made it through, they emerge as grown-ups and there is a party and gifts.

My son just came in and said, “Mommy, I need a new bike helmet, too. My old one ist too small.”

Sigh.

Alright. So, I ordered a new bike helmet.

Now I think I need to go and have a serious chat with the tooth fairy.

Wisdom teeth removal (part 1/2): signs of comfort

My younger son’s soul seems to have volunteered to contribute stories around teeth for this blog. When he was little, he had this stubborn baby tooth which would not leave and which led to two teeth growing in the same place. It mirrored my clinging to my former privacy.

Now he is 17 years old and in the beginning of March 2022, he had his wisdom teeth removed. All four of them at once. With local anesthesia only.

In the fall of 2021, we had the dentist do an X-ray of the wisdom teeth to find out whether they would cause trouble. And even though they looked benignly straight and not tilted, there was too little space for them. So, we decided that they had to be removed.

My son got all tensed up and anxious about the whole thing. No matter how often I told him that he would not feel anything when he got the local anesthesia and that the surgery would not take long, he felt worry and anxiety.

Soothing mint

Then in December 2021, we had a preparatory visit at the oral surgeons’s office, and right before that appointment outside where we parked our bikes, I saw a mint colored bike. I told my son, “Mint is the color my guides send me when they want to say something soothing and give me the message to calm down. So, I guess that means you should not worry. All will be fine.”

The next day, my son told me, “Mom, I was the first one in the classroom this morning, waiting there alone for the others to arrive. And then the first classmate arrived and guess what he was wearing. A mint-colored sweater. I had to think back to yesterday and the mint-colored bike. I felt soothed.”

We scheduled the surgery for the next school vacation so that my son would be able to recover at home and not have to visit school right away. Due to that and because the doctor came in only it at certain times during the week, the date of the surgery ended up on my birthday. Well, that was not the nicest way to spend a birthday. But never mind, I’d have to deal with it.

A comforting message

In January 2022 during a general physical check-up (which had nothing to do with the wisdom teeths), my son had his blood drawn from his arm. In order to distract my son from his anxiety, the nurse who drew the blood asked him to tell her a bit about which school he went to and my son did his best to answer.

After the procedure was over, I said, “That was a good method to distract you from your anxiety. But during your upcoming wisdom teeth removal, this won’t work because you cannot talk when you have your mouth open.”

The nurse heard that and started to tell us about her own wisdom teeth removal, “Oh, I had that too, recently, and it wasn’t horrible at all. In the evening, I was already able to eat again. No need to worry.”

I thought that was very nice from the universe to send us someone before the surgery to give us a comforting message.

And also, I was reminded that I had almost cancelled that check-up appointment because I wasn’t sure whether it was really necessary and I couldn’t find out whether our public health insurance would cover this particular one or whether I would end up having to pay at least part of the costs. So, after some unsuccessful back and forth between me, the general practitioner’s office, and the health insurance, I tried to call and cancel the appointment for the general check-up. However, mysteriously their phone line was busy all the time and I couldn’t get through. Now I knew the reason.

The cat

In March 2022, on the day of the surgery, we left the house in the morning to walk to the oral surgeon’s office. The remarkable thing was that the young reddish cat from our neighbors across the street had sat on our doormat just outside of our front door for several hours before we left. She never did that before. And when we went out, she walked with us for one block. It was unusual. As if this was another sign of comfort that someone was there to accompany us during this ordeal.

Purple

After the young cat had left, the next unusual thing we saw was a deep purple chiffon cloth on a bush in a front yard. As if someone lost it there. Then my son found a purple coin-shaped metallic plastic thing on the sidewalk. These things did not look like coincidences but like signs.

We arrived at the surgeon’s office. And just before the surgery, he was quite nervous and tense. The worst thing about the whole procedure were the eight injections for the local anesthesia. Pale in the face and shaking, he grabbed my hand tightly for comfort after the numbing injections. But soon afterwards, I had to leave the operating room. Accompanying persons were not allowed to be present during the surgery.

So, I sat outside and waited, and after only 30 minutes the whole thing was over. All four teeth removed in whole. None of them had to be cut in pieces. And all went well, thank goodness. We called my husband to take us home with the car.

At home, we were able to stop the bleeding with a single dose of Arnica 200c (- at occasions like these, I feel so grateful that I have learned something about homeopathy even though it took rheumatoid arthritis to get me to learn this).

And after about 8 hours, the effects of the local anesthesia were gone and my son was able to eat his first meal again. What a relief!

As within, so without

Sometimes life sends us little experiences which can be interpreted as metaphors for spiritual lessons.

Here is a story which happened recently (spring of 2022).
On the inside of our bathroom window, we have a pleated blind covering the lower half of the window. And even though I usually don’t clean the window behind the blind, one day I decided to pull the blind up a bit and remove the black mold from the inside of the window frame which had built up there over many months. I don’t know why I felt compelled to engage in extracurricular cleaning activities that day. I just did. Afterwards, I pulled the blind down again. The cleaned window frame was covered and invisible again.

On the outside, the window was dirty, too, with a huge stain of black mold on the bottom of the window frame. I looked at it, wondered where it came from, but decided that it wasn’t necessary to remove it.

Now, the interesting thing was that just a couple of days after I had cleaned the inside of the window frame, my husband told me, “You know, there was a huge stain of black mold on the outside of the bathroom window. And I just decided to clean it.”

That is remarkable because (A) my husband usually does not clean anything in the bathroom. Even thought he does sometimes clean other rooms, like vacuum the floors or clean the kitchen sink, cleaning something bathroom-related is unusual for him. And (B), it was just two days or so after I had cleaned the inside of the window (which was somewhat out of character for me to do, too). And also (C), my husband didn’t know that I had cleaned the inside of the frame just a short while ago. I had not told him and I had pulled the blind down so that the inside was covered again.

Immediately, I thought that this chain of events was not mere coincidence, but it was a lesson. It probably pointed to the saying ‘as within, so without‘ because the inside of the window frame was cleaned first, and then its outside was cleaned, too.

In real life, ‘as within, so without‘ refers to this: What we hold within our thoughts and emotions is the generating cause for the outside world.

I love it when life sends fundamental lessons packaged in little experiences like that.

Examples of divine guidance (part 3/3): health issues, dreams, and mirroring events

Here are more stories about divine guidance.

Everything is clogged

When I did not want to share my spiritual journey, I got some breathing trouble in my throat, as if it was clogged. The throat chakra can cause problems if there is a resistance to speaking one’s truth.

Also, when I did not want to share, many things in our household got clogged, like clogged drains, clogged showerheads, and a clogged coffee machine.

Interpretation: The events around as well as in my body mirrored my resistance to go forward on my spiritual path and come out of the closet and share what I had experienced.

Don’t rest too early

I had found the awareness-watching-awareness meditation method to be most effective. Turning my attention 180 degrees backwards and looking back at that which is looking, putting the focus of attention at awareness itself gave me the most peaceful and joyful feeling ever.

It was so joyful that I didn’t see a reason why I had to come back and participate in life again. I mean, I was still alive, taking care of work and kids. But why bother writing about my spiritual journey and sharing all of this? Why do anything stressful again that would distract me from meditation and bliss?

Then the following pattern of events happened (a dream and an actual event).

Dream (2014, Good Friday): I fly via airplane into the USA. I get off and reach a waiting area with nothing but black chairs where I sit down and even fall asleep from exhaustion.

Much later, I realize that I need to get up and pick up my luggage. From there, I continue to the exit where my brother is waiting for me. He is slightly annoyed since he has been waiting a long time for me.

Message: I have arrived and need a rest because I am totally exhausted. But this is not the right place to rest. I first need to pick up my luggage and then meet my brother. ‘Meeting my brother’ is a symbol for sharing with fellow spiritual travelers.

About a month after that dream, on Ascension Day 2014, a real-life event happened.

I was walking along a small street across a field which is also used as a glider airfield. Right in front of me, a small glider landed, but it came down too early and ended up on the wrong side of the street. A car had to come and tow it across the small street.

Message: This was an admonishment which was in synch with the airplane dream about not resting too early. The airplane also had come to a rest too early. I found it remarkable that both messages came through on important Christian holidays. That seemed to add more emphasis.

Examples of divine guidance (part 2/3): dreams

Here are some more stories with examples of divine guidance.

Depression

One day a while ago, I was very sad about the losses I had endured so far. And I was about to give in to the grief, drown in it, and never get up again.

Then I had the following dream.

I am on a bus ride. Suddenly I am falling out of the bus, leaving it while it is driving and before it has arrived at its final stop. I am lying in the street, covered by brown mud, and unable to get up and walk away. I cannot prevent other cars from running over me.

Message: This was a warning that I should not give in to the feeling of sadness too much. Otherwise I would leave the spiritual journey prematurely.

Figuring out my life’s mission

I asked what I should do with my life. What the heck is my mission in this incarnation? If my guides could please just let me know. Everything could be so much easier if they could just frankly tell me what I needed to do.

Afterwards, I got the following dream:

My son has some homework to do in mathematics. But he is too slow. Therefore, I attempt to help and solve the tasks for him.

Then the scene shifts and this time the homework is like a board with little light bulbs and electric cables and circuits. It is obvious that the task is to get all the light bulbs to light up by putting all the cables and plugs into the right places. This time, if the student makes an error, there is a red warning light and an alarm sound.

Message: “Sorry, we cannot let you know what you have to do in this lifetime. This would be as if you did the homework for your son. He would not learn anything. Figuring out your life’s mission is like putting the electric plugs into the right place. If you do it the wrong way, there will be plenty of warning signals.”