Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Seventeen Second Miracle

    David, Austin, Cailyn and I made a trip to Walmart the other day to get a few groceries. No trip to Walmart ever just ends with groceries we always manage to browse about every aisle in the store. While walking past the shoes I noticed a display in the middle of the aisle that was promoting "bargain books". I stopped on one side to peek through the titles and found nothing interesting. As I was pushing my cart away a book on the other side caught my eye. For those who don't already know yellow butterflies remind me of Eli. The yellow butterfly was what caught my attention and when I saw the title "The Seventeen Second Miracle" I knew Eli had sent it to me for a reason.
      The book is beautifully written and I will share with you my brief synopsis of it.
                        In the summer of 1970 a guy named Rex got a job as a lifeguard at the lake. One day he spotted a beautiful girl and knew he wanted to meet her. He said once he met her that there were sparks all around her and so that's the nickname he gave to her "Sparks". That summer that were pretty much inseparable. Sparks' mother was very old fashioned and she wanted their relationship to remain innocent so anytime Rex and Sparks went out together she always sent her younger daughter along, a girl Rex nicknamed "Flick".
                      Flick's 8th birthday was on Labor Day and they planned a beach party for her. They invited her friends and even Rex was invited to join in on the fun and her mother also wanted his extra set of eyes to watch the girls while they were in the water. All day Rex played with the kids in the water. They even brought out a frisbee and were tossing it and seeing who could get it. He tossed it out and then walked a few feet away to where Sparks was standing. He covered her eyes and played guess who. He counted 17 seconds while she named names. After he counted to 17 he turned to look and Flick was no longer where she was a few seconds before. Panic set in and he swam over to the spot and found her body floating and blue. He drug her onto the shore and began CPR and then another lifeguard took over. In that short, 17 seconds Flick was gone.
                     Rex came up with something he called "The Seventeen Second Miracle" and he put it to use every day by doing simple, kind things for people. His son, Cole took over the "discussions" when Rex was no longer able to. He helped to teach people that taking 17 seconds out of your day to do something for someone else can really change their life.
                     I can't tell much more without giving away the beauty of the story but I really do recommend it. If any of you read it or have already read it please stop by here and tell me what you thought of it.

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