I’m sure that I’m not special when I’ve had a down day.  You all can relate to this feeling; for me it’s mild: discouraged, disappointed, and sometimes a little anger mixed in.  I know you feel this and more.  I feel it too.  You may not know that my oldest son died 11 years ago, causing that grief to creep up on me with some regularity.

You may know that, since his passing, he has allowed me to experience miracles.  Many have been lovely experiences that I felt honored to share.  Some of those included making my string lights start twinkling, making a light at home blink like the rhythm of a heartbeat, showing me hearts, and showing me coins and dollars.  These were fun and uplifting, and if I was grieving, they made me feel better for a while.  Sometimes I felt awe, while others I actually felt joy.  They were overwhelmingly positive.

Sometimes my son has played tricks on me, some of which were silly, while others were obnoxious. In general, I could laugh at some point.  Once he dematerialized my computer, which I needed for work.  I knew where it had been, and it clearly wasn’t there.  I told him in no uncertain terms that I needed it back right away since I had to go to work soon.

It was an unusual morning because most mornings, I took my kids to school, but this day their father was taking them, so the house was empty. I remember looking all over and not seeing it anywhere.  I felt discouraged in the moment,  giving up to get ready for work.  

Just before I left, I used the bathroom.  From the bathroom, the bedroom door is right across the hall, and both doors were open since no one was home.  I noticed the bed was made on my husband’s side.  

I thought, “How bizarre!  That’s never happened before in 20 years of marriage.”  I had to go check the bed.  I pulled back the covers on his side, and there was my computer.  

I believe that’s Shawheen’s favorite kind of humor.

My point thus far is to look for times when your spirits offer you miracles that are funny!  They’re so great for boosting one’s mood, and they can offer us a good laugh.

But lately it has taken a turn for the worse.

I drive a nearly new car that I bought new at the beginning of 2026.  This dealership gives free checkups 4 times a year the first year.  There’s no surprise, given that it’s a Toyota, that they gave it a clean bill of health.  They had checked the radio; I made sure of it.

On my way to work 1-2 weeks ago, the radio started having weird behaviors.  First it would just go out, meaning the music would stop.  There’d be an image, suggesting it was playing different music, but it wasn’t what I was playing or anything I liked.  That wasn’t such a big deal, but it would do it over and over again, being very disruptive.  I’d want to try to get the music playing again, but that was disruptive to my driving.  I knew it was my son, being a goofball, but I wasn’t able to enjoy it.  I told him clearly that he could try playing other music, then I’d have something.

Another day, he disrupted the music, but this time he played music as requested.  My son was a lover of Rap music: Gangsta’s Paradise, I’ll Be Missing You, and Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.  I could have listened to any of those with more joy than the one he played.  Honestly, I can’t even find it on my Spotify.  It’s like it doesn’t exist.  But that day and a couple of others, he played that song.  I can tell you I listened to it because I had the impression that he liked it.  I could have listened to one despite not liking it very much, but they kept coming, these rough rap songs.  I had to push a few buttons to get it back to the music I enjoy.  

I think he found that funny.  In the spirit world, they think everything is funny, and they want us to find it all funny too.

I didn’t find that funny, and we’ve been having talks about whether he could do more positive miracles that would once again make me laugh out loud or feel a warm sense of awe.

It is funnier in hindsight.  He hasn’t done that in a while now, and the other tricks he’s playing are even less appealing.  But I can’t deny that they are funny when they resolve.  When they do obnoxious things, we need to work on finding the humor in them because their desire is to make us smile or laugh.  We’re the ones who are getting it wrong and getting irritated or discouraged.