In 1993, when I was still a rookie paramedic, our ambulance responded to a rural location in Solano County, California, for an “unknown medical.” What we found were three adolescent boys who had been playing with a BB gun, and one of them had shot the second one. The third boy had finally, after more than an hour, called 911, despite the other two boys protesting that they didn’t want to get in trouble.
(Picture: Paramedic Mark Silver and partner EMT Rudy Valencia on duty in Vallejo, CA, 1993.)
BB gun, no big deal, although the kid didn’t look great. I raised his shirt and saw the tiny hole in the front of his chest, left side. My gut clenched as I took a quick set of vital signs. “We’re outa here, strip-and-flip.” I told my partner. Which is short-hand for we need to get this kid to the hospital, like, immediately.
The ride to the hospital had me terrified for two reasons. One is that there was an invisible line on the boy’s leg where the skin turned from warm to cold. This is a late-stage sign of shock through blood loss in pediatric trauma that I’d only heard about at that point.
The second was that the boy asked me, pale, shivering, looking up from the gurney, “Please don’t let me die.” I instantly flashed on my paramedic instructor, who had told us, “If a patient ever says to you, “please don’t let me die” believe them. People know when they are dying.” My spine shivered in answer.
I had two IVs, oxygen and all the prayers I could put into this kid on the way to the ER. I trotted next to the doc giving my report as they rushed him to surgery.
Later, the doc, who I didn’t know and didn’t work there very often, told me the kid was lucky we came to this ER instead of going to Queen of the Valley, which was the regional trauma center. At that point I said to myself, “Oh crap, I can’t believe I forgot about Queen of the Valley for trauma.” It was a ridiculous, bizarre lapse of memory for a trained paramedic to forget about the trauma center.
Divinely-inspired. In the next moment the doc told me that if the kid had gotten to surgery five minutes later he would’ve died. And the doc? He was the chief trauma surgeon from Children’s Hospital Oakland. The most skilled person for fifty miles happened to be moonlighting in the ER I accidentally chose.
And the kid? He had had no say in any of it. He was just along for the ride that saved his life.
I still get choked up just writing this up.
Guidance Isn’t Yours
The third friend who called 911, my forgetting the trauma center, the trauma surgeon who decided to moonlight that day, all came together mysteriously to save this child’s life. The child himself was just along for the ride.
No one did any deep spiritually-guided process. We just showed up and made choices. My belief is that the Divine shaped the path for the boy, even to the extent of causing me to forgot the trauma center as a destination.
Guidance isn’t yours. You don’t own it. You can’t create it. The path is unfolding, and there are so many little pieces and people involved in your business and in your life; there is no way you can control it all.
I very much support taking time, sometimes a lot of time, in spiritual practice, contemplation, and accessing love. Sometimes, though, you don’t have time. Sometimes you can’t access guidance.
Nonetheless, you’re living it. Guidance is just the occasional glimpse we’re given of what’s already unfolding.
Other Business Lessons
1. If you’ve messed up, call for help earlier rather than later.
2. When you ask for help, let those people do their job. Let yourself be carried by other people’s expertise.
3. Be careful with BB guns because small things can cause big problems. Hint: what are the BB guns in your business that you are being a bit careless with? Your accounting? Caring for your clients? Your technical support? Lord above those things are loaded… you can have fun with them, but dang it, pay attention.
36 Responses
My BB guns are tech support. When I pay someone for it, it gets done quickly. When I try to do it, I suffer way out of proportion to the job to be done and it takes me far longer to get it completed.
Great article!
OMG- that can so be me, too. Thanks!
Hi Mark, what a beautiful and real life personal story about life unfolding and being guided in the midst of it! This really speaks to me — not so much in my business life — but in my personal life. I’ve recently had life unfold in a way that caused me to make a major life decision and shift directions all because of how some things unfolded. In other words, the decision wasn’t made in deep meditation or prayer but in living life and responding to certain situations.
This article really encouraged me that, yea, sometimes the divine just steps in and brings things together for you, just as he did for this young boy.
Thanks so much for sharing!
You are so welcome… and I hope your transition was graceful!
Hi Mark,
What a wonderful post! Indeed Divine guidance intervened that day – and you prayed as you were in the ambulance, so you did extend the invitation for the Universe to support you and that kid don’t forget! However yes, we’re not always handling the things we can take charge of – my BB gun holes are my accounting, and copy-writing. Stopping both those gushers as we speak. 😉
Blessings!
Louise x
Accounting and copywriting- a pretty big deal- glad you know them. And yes I was praying- but not until after things were in motion. 🙂
Hi
Thank you for the timely reminder, that we all need to do what we can today, in this moment, looking after the small stuff, the next step & know that life is a journey. So stay playful. Lol Bruce
Nice- gotta stay playful- or at least return there as soon as possible.
I got shivers reading this. Thank you, as ever, for these reminders that there is always guidance.
I’ve been reading more newspapers than usual recently and it can feel hard to remember constant divine presence when you plug in to the world’s seemingly crazy goings-on.
More newspapers with stories like this one, please 😉
With love,
Corrina
I recommend Yes! Magazine and Ode Magazine if you want more like this. They both bring a great deal of hope to me.
Wow, Mark! Thanks for sharing this profound and moving story. I also have goosebumps and am grateful for the timely reminder to trust the guidance that shows up as synchronicity, to call in support and to pay attention to the bb’s.
Right on, Jaymi. Thanks!
Thank you, Mark, for sharing this extremely heart-centered story. My beloved husband was the recipient of a similar synchronicity when he was injured on a construction site and almost bled to death from having a broken tile slice the main artery in his wrist. We later found out that the surgeon who just “happened” to be on the ER rotation that day was known as the best hand surgeon in Jacksonville. After the operation to repair the arterial damage, the surgeon told us that had the cut gone less than a millimeter deeper, my husband would have lost the use of his hand because the main nerve runs parallel to the artery. He’d never operated on a person with that kind of arterial cut that didn’t also lose hand function. Talk about a double blessing! Surely divine guidance was watching over my husband that day, just as the divine watched over that young boy – and you, Mark. Thank you for this inspiring message. I wish all of you peace, love and joy in the coming year.
I’m so grateful that his hand was saved- what a blessing! Thanks for sharing that. And thank you for your kind words.
Mark, what a moving and powerful story! Thank you so very much! Also heartening to see so many others write to say that accounting is one of their BB’s….as it is also mine – but I thought I was alone. Of course not!
So many daily miracles / serendipities (happen in my life. Some I’m aware of and most others, I’m not.) And altho’ I love the practice for so many reasons and on so many levels, I also realize that as you said in your last line “Guidance is just the occasional glimpse we
That’s a great question, Otha. In my tradition there are two things said about prayer. One is that prayer is best said as a gratitude for what is already happening. It helps to open up our eyes to what is happening and truly receive it. It is possible for people to shut down/resist and miss things.
The other thing my tradition says is that petitionary prayer is the only thing that can change God’s will. Not like forcing it, but that the request of the human being (which the Divine already knew was going to be made), is what the Divine loves to respond to.
It’s a big topic, but there’s a beginning. You might want to read the Backwards document for more on that.
Brilliant, just brilliant writing. I enjoyed that so much. And I shivered right along with you. I also “get it”, the BB guns in my business. Thanks for the reminder Mark, both to keep vigilante and to deepen the spiritual practice. If anyone is on the fence about joining the MoneyFlow, can’t say enough good things about it. Deb
Thank you, Deborah!
Oh Mark, thank you so very much for sharing your incredible heartfelt experience. And like so many here, it touched me in many different ways.
Reading your story raised my internal question marks. Recently i’ve been reflecting on a message that accompanies a symbol that flowed thru me. The symbol’s message is, “Guidance is communicating to lovingly improve your life.”
I will print out the bb gun q.’s and think about them more, if you don’t mind. As an artist, sometimes i get so absorbed in the creative process that i have zero awareness that something like a bb gun may be carelessly stored and ready to injure my business -like not having a website yet!
kind regards to you and all who have shared here.
marjorie meister aka moonfire
This was very powerful, Mark. Thanks for writing it.
This part really spoke to me:
“When you ask for help, let those people do their job. Let yourself be carried by other people
Mark,
What an incredible story. Reading about this experience had me in tears. The story is a very powerful metaphor for something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve also been hearing from friends that they share this issue also.
Why do we wait until it’s an emergency before we go and get help? I think this is why so many coaches have trouble getting clients. People think they have to have something figured out or be in a certain place before they can utilize help. So they wait until they either figure things out (whatever that means) or they’re deep in crisis before they do anything about it.
Either way, time passes, the pain increases and we keep feeding the lie that we’re not helpable or as Sparky put it…”maybe for all those other people..but I’m different.”
Maybe there’s more that you have to say on this issue. I would love to hear it.
Oh my god Mark, I was choked up while reading! What a great story, please share more like that from your life. It hit me because I just had the nearest death experience of my life on Sunday (bad, bad airplane landing in horrible weather in NY; full story and lessons learned are on my Accidental Seeker blog home page now) and I’m a really seasoned frequent flier.
Talk about having no control and divine guidance – it might not make sense unless someone reads about my experience, but the long story short is the man who sat next to me on the flight from hell, who I at first tried to reassure and who ended up comforting me, turned up on my flight home last night. What are the odds, right? We’d never met before the first flight, didn’t talk much during or after it.
I am still thanking the angels who landed that plane and the (human) angels who were on it, and am endlessly grateful to be here today.
Thank you, Mark! I, too, got all choked up reading it!
I so appreciate the way you are able to translate lessons from one area of life to business! I especially appreciate the tip about asking for help when you mess up!
Mark, that was an amazing story, and a potent reminder about how divine guidance works….trusting that inner voice, that voice of Spirit and being obedient to it…or at least surrendering to it.
Of course everyone involved in that saga is/was blessed!
Thanks so much for sharing….
Harriet
wow — what a story. you’ll have me thinking about this one for a while…
Whew. That was big.
A big story, and a deep concept – that we are carried anyway, and always, by the divine.
It’s timely for me – as always – because I’ve been dipping in and out of awareness of this the last week or two… God is always here… God is always here… Where is the divine now? … Ah yes, here… Still here… Yes, even in this, now, still here…. Ah, yes, different to before but here…
That’s my internal dialogue amidst the Everything of life.
Love Yollana
I shared this article with my wife this morning, since, I wanted to share with her the subtle, yet powerful notion behind having the correct attribution.
Your account here – reminds me of one of your earlier ideas, that is: if one focuses too much on creating results – then one could have the tendency to forget the SOURCE that produces the results!
It is because of these powerful spiritual principles that you teach why I am joining you now on my first six month journey to learn how to become a businessman, indeed, a businessman who conducts his business from my heart!
Thank you so very much!
Moving post.
It is amazing how divine intervention works when we let it. The biggest miracles in my life, including saving my life came from unintended consequences and surrender. When I can get out of my own way something happens. The problem isn
Great story, writing and amazing points. Thank you Mark!
Awesomely powerful story, Mark. Very moving. Had me recall some similar memories of my days working in a small animal emergency clinic. Hadn’t thought about bringing those to my Purposeful Pondering articles. Duh!
For me, the story really highlights the ‘spiritual serendipity’ world we all live in. Small case in point — I’ve been feeling the urge to revitalize “Project Purpose” — the project to write and publish magazine articles about people living purposeful lives that eventually led me to found Life On Purpose Institute.
Having been out of the freelance magazine writing business for over a decade, I’ve wondered what magazines are out there these days. Even posted a question about it on Facebook with no response (yet).
Then, presto, I read your article today, end up here on the blog and you mention two great magazines that could be perfect for Project Purpose. Divine Guidance once again.
So, to close, let me suggest a resource for others — a small book with a lot of bunch — Spiritual Serendipity: Cultivating and Celebrating the Are of the Unexpected by Richard Eyre.
Thank you for all of your wonderful comments, folks. I’m so glad this was so impactful for so many people. I’m nourished and inspired by each of you.
Thank you for this beautiful story, Mark.
I love your reminder to trust those who you ask to take over a task. But what if they are not trustworthy? I have just gone through a close to three-month ordeal with a web designer who simply wasn’t delivering. (The project was to be completed in three weeks.) I held on for much too long out of (1) the need to give him the benefit of the doubt and (2) the fear of losing the 50 percent upfront money I had paid. The wound started as a B-B gun wound, but grew to huge proportions. Not sure what I should have done differently.
I have also realized that one of my BB guns is isolation. A former city dweller, I live in the country with my animals. I was very social in the city, but realize I have folded in on myself out here. This is a problem both personally and professionally (in terms of letting people know that I exist!).
Thank you so much for your beautiful reminder to be mindful, open, and willing to enter the stream that will carry you.
Hi Pam- yes that’s another question isn’t it? Once you trust someone, then you can trust them. But if they haven’t earned your trust, it is worthwhile to keep your eyes open.
Thank you, Mark.
So I guess my BB gun is knowing when to trust. I’ve figured this out (I think!) in my personal life, but I need to be more mindful in my business.
BB guys are no freakin joke.. the ones now a days shoot 1,000+ fps, which is just as fast as a .22 rifle.
It’s really a cool and useful piece of info. I am satisfied that you simply shared this useful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.