Ancestors, ladybirds & maybe miracles

by Lian Brook-Tyler

Ancestors, ladybirds & maybe miracles

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Albert Einstein, or was it?*

We are embarking on an Ancestral Quest in our Soul Academy, UNIO, this month, and it brought to mind a story from a few years ago.

I’m going to tell you the story, and you can decide if it’s about miracles or not.

A decade or so ago, I read the best-selling book e-squared by Pam Grout.

In her book she gives a series of playful experiments the reader can try to intentionally engage with what she calls ‘The Field’… You might call it the universe, consciousness, infinite intelligence, source, Spirit or God.

Even though I was already deeply immersed in this way of living, I thought I’d play along.

I asked my late father to give me a sign that somehow he was still around. I’ve no idea why, especially as it was the middle of winter, but I asked for the sign to be a ladybird.

Later that day, I saw a ladybird walking around my bedside lampshade. The next day, another one was walking around the hot tap when I was taking a bath.

A year later, I was reading Pam’s follow-up book e-cubed in readiness for her to come on the podcast (one of the huge perks of hosting a podcast!), reading it reminded me of the ‘ladybird experiment’ the year before.

And then I noticed that I had two drawings on the shelf next to me in my studio, one from each of my children that they’d specifically asked me to keep - both of them are of ladybirds - though they didn’t know about the ladybird story.

Next to the pictures, I’d placed a tiny glass ladybird… and so now there were three ladybirds together on the shelf, though somehow I hadn’t realised that until that moment.

As I saw the three ladybirds, I mentioned that and the original ladybird story to Jonathan.

The next day as I was reading the book in bed, I decided to ask for another sign… Specifically, I asked that one of my children would bring me something. (I didn’t say it aloud!)

Ten minutes later, my then four-year-old daughter burst into my room with something clutched in her fist and said 'I've brought this for you, mummy'.

It was the little glass ladybird from the shelf downstairs… She’d decided to go into my studio, pick up that ladybird, climb the stairs and give it to me.

I was so surprised I couldn’t speak, before I could find words, she ran off and then came back again with something in her hand.

It was a painted pebble from her bedroom. You guessed it… It’s painted as a ladybird.

She placed it in my hands and told me that I can keep it on my shelf too.

She read the words painted on top, which say 'I love you'. She said "Yes, it's saying I love mummy and I love Aurelia".

I mentioned this story (but didn’t have time to tell it) in the Ancestral Ceremony in UNIO. Later that day I was walking the dogs with my son, he exclaimed “Look!” Showing me that a ladybird had landed on him, and then I realised that I too had a ladybird, sitting right over my heart.

Were the ladybirds signs of my father’s love for us echoing down the years?

Or just a series of coincidences?

Is nothing a miracle?

Or is everything a miracle?

♥️

*I tend to be autistically accurate with quotes, you might notice I usually include the source (e.g. the book or talk) the quote is taken from, especially when it’s by a frequently misquoted person, like Jung.

This quote “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” is commonly attributed to Albert Einstein, however there is no definitive evidence that he actually said or wrote these words.

The earliest known attribution to Einstein appears in the personal notes of geographer Gilbert Fowler White from 1942.

Despite this, the lack of direct sources from Einstein himself makes the attribution uncertain, and whilst the sentiment aligns with themes present in some of his other writings, the true origin of the quote remains unclear.

And yet, whoever said it… it contains a potent magical enquiry that makes it one of my favourites.

Art: Aarón Blanco Tejedor

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