We have been working very hard recently and many personal and business challenges have been quite stressful to say the least.  I practice what I preach so daily stress reduction practices are a part of my daily life.  But this weekend I was just so almost overwhlemed with a particular situation that I just went into my meditation room and sat on the floor and surrendered completely.  I said, "let go, let God."  I couldn‘t fix this particular problem anymore and gave it up, total surrender.  I sensed a great peace that was wonderous and did a long meditation and felt like a new person.  A few minutes later I was on the porch putting birdseed into our birdfeeders and all of the sudden there was a very strong smell of roses.  I was shocked.  It is in the middle of winter, it is 25 degrees, there is not a leaf on a tree, and the smell of roses is so strong it is shocking.  I stood up and looked around in complete shock looking for something that was blooming.  Standing there for 10 minutes smelling this powerful rose smell was mystical and freaky for sure.  Continuing to feed the birds I said good bye to the smell of roses, came back into the house and told my husband.  Later that evening, I remembered teaching Early Church History and World Religions and reading about when the Virgin Mary appears to some people, there is the smell of roses that verifies the apparition.  I sat still in amazement.  I swear that is what happened to me.  Ten feet from the birdfeed is a very old statue of the Virgin Mary in our flower garden, but it is winter and there are NO flowers.  Being an old Catholic much of my life, I told Mary thank you for the verification of your presence and now I really do surrender all of my problems to you.  What a gift.  What a miracle here at Oak Haven.