I too have a beautiful story of love to share! You will want to read this! :)

by Mark B
(Ashland, OR)

Here's my story. My story is one of love, miracles, and divine beauty! It may even blow your mind. I hope it gives you all more hope, faith, and love in your life!

The greatest of these is love is no doubt true!

So I've always been a spiritual guy, though never really embraced it growing up, and generally had a fairly decent life, but a hard one nevertheless being that I am a sensitive, introvert, and empathic person who never felt like I belonged in the world.

In 2007 I was still living a life of severe depression wishing death upon myself on a consistent basis. Self-love wasn't something I knew and I lived a life of severe depression. Working in SF in the corporate world at the age of 27 I felt that life was meaningless and that I was worthless despite my many accomplishments, the great friends I had, and that I had the most amazing girlfriend in my life.

One day I stood up from my cubicle chair and nearly fainted. Drank a glass of water and went on with my day as if nothing happened. The next day I ended up with a 103 degree fever, went to the hospital (it was Sat), waited nearly 9 hours, and was simply sent home with Motrin. Boy was I upset. Long story short, my fever progressed even with the Motrin to nearly 105 the next day, to the point where the whites of my eyes were bloody red from the boiling heat. I had severe chills, could barely get up, struggled to breathe, and couldn't even take down a drop of water without vomiting and dry heaving every time. I was a mess to say the least. I was the walking dead, quite literally.

The stubborn man within me didn't tell anybody and refused to go to the hospital again because of my horrible experience the previous day, so I made the decision to wait until Monday to see my primary doctor instead. Thank God it was Sunday, because as you will find out, I wouldn't have made it to Monday, like as in not exist as a physical being on this earth anymore, if I had went to the ER on Friday instead of Saturday.

Finally I gave in and because of my state asked my aunt to drive me to my primary doctor. He had one look at me and called an ambulance to literally take me across the street to the same hospital that turned me away with Motrin. Long story short, they began sticking me with many needles, stitched a tube into my jugular vein, and I then spent the next 11 days in intensive care, nearly a month in recovery at the hospital, and three months at home.

What did I have? According to the many many doctors and specialists who saw me, an unknown virus and pneumonia in both longs. This unknown virus was attacking my heart muscles primarily but also the rest of my body because it was in the blood stream. My resting heart rate was just under 200 beats per minute (normal about 80 I believe) and I needed an oxygen machine dialed on full blast to even breathe because my lungs were nearly filled from the pneumonia.

My family was told I would have died in less than 12 hours if I didn't get to the hospital, that I may likely die even now that I'm here, or that if I do happen to live, I will most likely need a heart transplant.

Boy, was I in a bad place. Essentially, the doctors could only do what they could which was give me fluids and oxygen and hope that my body would fight it off.

Now here's where the amazing part starts to begin. If you haven't guessed it yet, I made a 100% recovery with no lasting damage to my heart or body. Though I did lose nearly 30 pounds from my already skinny frame!

During recovery they told me the same things they told my family when I was on death's door, and that my recovery was without a doubt nothing short of a miracle. In fact, all the doctors called me the miracle boy.

Keep reading, trust me, it get's even more amazing! So my most amazing girlfriend I had at the time is the most loving person I have ever met in my entire life. I am now 35 years old and have never met such a loving human being. She was and is absolutely wonderful. Despite our relationship being at the tail end because of my lack of self-love due to major depression, she still spent each and everyday by my side while I was sick.

Guess which day this beautiful woman who lives from the heart was born on? Yup, Valentines day! There is no coincidence in God's creation! Funny considering I also had an unknown virus attacking my heart. But get ready, it get's even crazier!

Ok, now here's the part that will blow your mind as it did mine! When I was finally recovering at home, my loving girlfriend and I were parting ways. I still couldn't find it within my heart to love myself and let alone someone else so our relationship was nearing it's end. I was still a depressed man despite all that I went through and all that we had gone through together as a couple for nearly 3.5 years.

While we were exchanging our last words as girlfriend and boyfriend laying across from each other in the bed both crying, I before my vary eyes watched the pennant she was wearing around her neck which said 'Hope, Faith, and Love' vanish in thin air and reappear in my hand with the chain still around her neck! When I opened my fingers the words, the Greatest of these is Love was staring back!

Yup, it reappeared in my hand facing the other direction with a message of love!

Let me just say I walked around with my eyes wide as if I just saw a ghost and I even at one point accused my girlfriend of somehow making that happen. I was confused, as what I witnessed defied everything I have ever been taught in school or believed. I didn't really or I should say couldn't really grasp the significance of this experience because my level of consciousness at the time just wasn't there.

Finally, nearly 8 years later and after multiple synchronicity moments spirit lead me to this very article on this amazing website. The power of it all finally hit me! Like literally, a few minutes ago! :-)

This subject actually came up last week when I bumped into a young homeless kid who's level of love and peace was well beyond his years. I feel bad because I initially judged him thinking he wanted money. But then he spoke and humbled me like I never have been humbled before. I consider myself pretty darn spiritual these days too. I ended up sitting on the sidewalk with him for nearly 3 hours talking about spirituality and sharing our vastly different life stories! It was a blessing to have that experience to say the least!

During our conversation, he kept holding his hand over his heart and speaking about the significance of loving everyone including himself. He said the love he has for himself and all that is, is why he leads the life he does despite having a loving family which he could return to at any time. He said his divine mission is to impart spiritual wisdom on other homeless kids and passerby's along his many journeys throughout cities across the United States.

This was significant to me, especially because self-love is something I still struggled with in fact (dark night of the soul these past two years).

So while continuing to chat with this amazing young man I suddenly noticed the message Hope, Faith, and Love written on a piece of paper he was initially scribbling on before I had crossed his path. All of a sudden like a rush of wind into my awareness, I felt all the connections of everything leading up to this point and it all started to fall into place within my being.

Long story short, this encounter with this young man ultimately led me to this website and when reading one of the articles I found a link to this article! Well, I will say reading this was the icing on the cake.

Thank you so much Chuck for sharing your wonderful story too and helping me to see just how powerful and beautiful love truly is. This was exactly what I needed to read at this very moment and was quite literally the missing piece of my puzzle!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

-Mark