As I think of fear, I think back on a situation that was the most fearful I have ever experienced in my life.

Our trip to Puerto Rico in July 2017.

My husband and I were raised down there so we enjoy going back often to visit family and friends and enjoy all that the island has to offer. We loaded up the family and flew down to San Juan, rented a car, and took a leisurely drive to Cabo Rojo on the other end of the island.

We got there late in the day, checked into the air BB and decided the to call my husband’s sister and brother-in-law who live in Mayaguez to see if they wanted to meet us in La Parguera for dinner that first evening.

Our kids were young the last time they have been to La Parguera. It is such a cute fishing town with shops and restaurants and the local music blaring with many people on the streets dancing. But the Phosphorescent Bay is what attracts many. On a moonless night when the water is disturbed the water glows with microscopic organisms.
They have tour boats to take people out on. After dinner my in laws decided to go back home because they had to work the next day.

My family and I headed to the tour boats to go out on the bay. It was a perfect night with no moon. We hopped on a medium sized tour boat. There were probably 25-30 on the boat.

After everyone sat down the captain started his briefing in Spanish. I wasn’t sure if he would say it in English but as a former flight attendant, I listen to the briefings. He explained in case of an emergency the life vests are located in the overhead covered area of the boat. I pointed them out to our kids, so they were aware they are overhead.

After the briefing, we leave the dock and head out on the water. My family and I are sitting aft with two other military guys with no roof over our heads so we can look up into the sky, while everyone else was under the covered part of the boat.

I am on the right side with our two girls, the one daughter facing forward looking up into the very dark sky. The was no moon and you can see every star so big and brilliant. She was thinking how amazing God is to have made this beauty. Our other daughter was sitting between us looking aft and I was looking down into the water at the lights on the boat, wondering when we would start to see the Phosphorescent lights. My husband and son were sitting across from us on the left side of the boat. What a beautiful night.

The next thing I remember I was on the floor of the boat all wet looking up and everyone was screaming. I felt I was in a dream. Everything was in extreme slooow motion, and the screams of the people sounded muffled. As I am lying on the ground my first reaction was to get up and get the life vests. I got up looked at the covered area of the boat to get over there and start pulling life vests down, but I noticed nothing was there. The covered roof had collapsed on all the people. They were all stuck under this roof. that collapsed.

I looked up and saw my husband and daughters hugging each other standing right next to me literally 3 feet away. All I can hear is my husband asking our girls where is your mother, where is your mother? They were yelling back, I don’t know!!! I kept yelling, I am here, I am here. I was standing right in front of them, but they didn’t see or hear me. Why can’t they see me????
At this point I thought I did not survive, and I was there in spirit. I was the weirdest feeling seeing all this going on around you and no one can see me.

Finally, my husband saw me and started hugging me. Then he asked about our son, where is he? He was still on the ground with his hands reaching up to help him. We were yelling, are you OK? Are you OK? He kept saying yes but we were afraid he had no feeling and lost his legs. Thank God he finally got up and was OK.

I had no idea what had happened because I was looking over the side of the boat into the water, our other daughter didn’t see what happened as she was looking up into the sky, our son just got a glimpse and thought a big shark went over us. But my husband and other daughter saw it was another boat going at high speed, hit us and flew over the boat knocking down the covered roof on the boat which smashed down on all the people. We did not feel the impact of the boat hitting us.

We were so frightened, we were wet, we were freezing, everyone is screaming, and our Captain was in shock and didn’t know what to do. The fear in me and my family propelled us to help the others who were not doing well. My husband had to talk the Captain into going very slowly back to shore in fear the boat would fall apart.

Then he and our son took off their brand new shirts and used them as tourniquets on some that were bleeding. Once we got back to shore the 5 of us and the two military guys were the only ones not really hurt, at least we didn’t think we were until the next couple of days, but we were better off than the rest. We helped everyone off the boat, called the police and ambulance. It was amazing anyone survived this.

There is so much more to this story. I just thought as we are talking about fear, this is a situation that was the most fearful for me and my family and yet our fear was completely taken away when all we could think about was truly being in the now and helping the others.

We all felt God’s presence who protected us.

My family laughs at me because every time we go to the beach or down to the Caribbean, I am always smelling the air and mentioning to them how good it smells and how good it makes you feel and it makes you feel so healthy. I guess this is the Pranic Energy which is life itself. We were definitely filling our lungs with this air that night and maybe that is what saved us.
It’s simply amazing!

Every time we breathe, we fill our lungs with air and at the same time vitalize our body with this Pranic Ether which is Life itself, so that we have the opportunity of making a conscious connection with All Life, All Intelligence and All Substance.  Haanel 20-24