| Clouds hold a special attraction for me, especially | | | | named Gideon shared. His friend Marla was no less |
| when I'm flying above and can enjoy them from this | | | | mystical than he was and under their tutoring and |
| unique perspective. They seem so angelic, so pure, so | | | | guidance,I had learned much about the higher |
| easily shaped into sculptures of the imagination | | | | perspectives of the confusing experience we call life. |
| wherein one can read all sorts of strangetales. I | | | | So strange and mysterious were their appearance |
| watched the Volkswagen beetle cloud as it began | | | | and behavior that at times, I didn't even believe that |
| shifting its form into wispy little alphabet letters. At first, | | | | they really existed! Yet, I have with me, to this day, the |
| vapory patches seemed to break away and almost | | | | books1 in which our earlier adventures were chronicled. |
| disappear before my eyes. This strange cloud seemed | | | | As we moved through time into evening and through |
| to have a will of its own, changing shape again. How | | | | space toward the east coast of North America,I |
| amusing! It may have been the angle or a trick of the | | | | recalled how I first met them and what remarkable |
| light. Parts seemed to be forming the letters . . . G...D ... | | | | personalities they were. Through the tough times of |
| N. Then they vanished, changing forms like some | | | | the past, from the loss of all my material possessions |
| animated caricatures in the process. It is fascinating | | | | through the death of my wife, Mardai, and from a |
| how the analytical computer of the mind connects | | | | condition of utter despair to a situation full of promise, |
| random thoughts and pictures to other thoughts and | | | | Gideon and Marla would appear in an almost magical |
| experiences of the past. The letters GDN following the | | | | fashion to administer a sorely needed dose of hope |
| Volkswagen cloud brought to mind a half-forgotten | | | | and spiritual vision, then, just as magically, disappear. |
| incident of long ago where I had seen the name | | | | They were truly angelic beings come to earth. |
| GIDEON on the license plate of a Volkswagen. Mind | | | | Lecturer, entrepreneur and MBA business consultant, |
| accessed memory banks and connected the dots as I | | | | John Harricharan is the author of the award-winning |
| recalled the adventures a mysterious friend of mine | | | | book, "When You Can Walk on Water, Take the Boat. |