Mt. Beacon

Something jarred my memory this weekend. Our grandchildren definitely need to know this story.
We grew up, as did the previous generation, in the shadow of Mt. Beacon looming like a friendly behemoth hovering over the town. "Woe to those who would harm my faithful subjects" he would bellow on stormy nights-or maybe it was all my imagination. My mother, when she was a child of eight, emerged one fine morning from the front door, turned around and had the most wondrous vision that caused her to become a starving seeker after truth (and donuts) for the rest of her life. On the side of Mt . Beacon, near the top, but not on the top, stood a beautiful lady next to two golden doors. My grandmother told her to cut it out or get a spanking. Visions, or anything that could not be put in the soup kettle, were not allowed in their house-not with eight mouths to feed and the wolf always howling at the door. Visions were for wealthy families with time on their hands. I doubt my pragmatic grandmother even turned around and looked at the mountain to see for her self. As a young adult my mother consulted a fortune teller on main street who told her that what she was looking for would not be found in Beacon.. So she moves to Iowa, becomes a chiropractor and a Baha'i and eventually goes on pilgrimage to Israel in 1970--about 45 years after her childhood vision. She walks up to the Shrine of the Ba'b rising majestically on the side of Mt. Carmel. She quietly stands and stares at the two massive golden doors --52 became 8 once again.
So what do I think of visions. They come in all sizes and shapes and they show you a part of heaven. I have never had a vision of two golden doors, but I have had a vision of two tiny dark eyes smiling at me from her mother's arms. This vision is named Samaya--which means "heaven" in Amharic. One day she will grow up to be a beautiful lady who will stand and stare at the two golden doors just like her mother, father, grandfather, grandmother and great grandmother and she will tell the story of the two golden doors to her children who will stand and stare...