The Byte: Kim Gilson ~ Dimes & Signs & Sons, Oh My!

Kim is a speaker (and boy howdy can you tell, incredible storyteller anyone?) an author, a teacher, and a former band leader, (cue the badass band memories you all!) who is not afraid of sharing her powerful stories of magic and mystery! (and that's Mystery with a capital "M" as you will hear!) She tells a story of her husband, who, even though he had passed, still found ways to show up and remind her she was loved!

Transcript

Greetings everyone and welcome back to the very next episode of the podcast which happens to be a midweek miracle episode and my interview with Kim Gilson.

Now I need to apologize to you all I somehow inadvertently uploaded two versions of the bite-sized episode for the last episode released.

I'm not quite sure how that happened I'm checking into the software to see exactly how that transpired but yeah I apologize if it caused any confusion.

Well I need to introduce you to my guest this episode and that is Kim Gilson.

Pretty much from the second we started talking we could not stop.

You know when you meet those people who just feel like soul sisters that you just know you can drop everything and go on over to their house and and they'll sit at a table or a counter and just hear you out or deeply listen or offer some really fabulous advice.

Well Kim is that person.

She has had a very interesting career.

She's been a teacher,

She's been a band leader,

She tells some hilarious stories in this episode.

I was laughing and laughing and side note I do confess an earlier crime in my life it's very very bad from when I was in grade school and had the potential to become a musician.

I hope you all don't hold it against me.

All that to say this conversation was rip-roaring and hilarious and I could barely keep up with Kim.

Now she does share several miracles in this episode and I'm gonna use that word with a capital M because they are very powerful and very very poignant.

I'm gonna let Kim tell those stories I don't want to spoil anything but I do want to say thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast.

So now without further ado here's my episode with Kim Gilson.

And my brother and I are talking and the whole time he's talking all I can think I'm just hearing blah blah blah because all I'm thinking is I've got to sell this house I cannot afford this house I've got to unload this house and what am I gonna do if I can't sell the house and then something falls out of the top of this bag of golf clubs and hits the ground and my brother goes what was that and I didn't he bends over and I said it's a dime isn't it and he said how'd you know there is a book I read many many years ago by an author named Laurie Beth Jones I've got to find this woman I hope she's still alive I've got to find her because I tell this story frequently in her book Jesus as life coach she talks about coming up with a symbol this is gonna be a symbol between you and God and you agree on the symbol hers was the ladybug and she had some crazy stories of ladybugs traveling in a hotel kind of depressed kind of down homesick opens up her suitcase and there's a ladybug in her suitcase okay so I'm like all right I'm gonna pick dimes I don't know why I just picked a dime all right they're nice little silver you know and and I've had some good dime stories but you got to hear this one so when Paul died we had a 3,

200 square foot house on an acre that was not easy to get to and one of the I couldn't afford it it was too much and I needed out of that house and the boys wanted out of that house we wanted a fresh break so I broke all the rules of widowhood you know don't make any big decisions the first year yeah no they were out the window the first week so I'm like we got to sell the house so family jumps in they get the house ready and we had our first showing on a Saturday morning and I come back you know you leave for the showing and you come back and and then my brother shows up and so we're standing in the garage talking the garage is pretty much emptied out they'd taken a bunch of stuff to a storage building and there is this bag of golf clubs standing in the middle of the garage and my brother and I are standing to the side of it we are not touching it it's not like we're leaning on it's just there and my brother and I are talking and the whole time he's talking all I can think I'm just hearing blah blah blah because all I'm thinking is I've got to sell this house I cannot afford this house I've got to unload this house what am I gonna do if I can't sell the house and then something falls out of the top of this bag of golf clubs and hits the ground and my brother goes what was that and I didn't eat he bends over and I said it's a dime isn't it and he said how'd you know not only was it a dime it was a 1957 dime which means it's got that higher silver content it's beautiful they they were more silver and less gray and it makes a different sound when it hits the ground I still have the dime I want you to know that was Saturday morning Monday morning I get a call from my realtor the people that looked at the house Saturday morning made me a full-price offer I was dating the man that I wound up marrying there's a 15 year age difference and I was praying about this like it's you know I'm kind of having a trouble a problem with the age difference and I'm praying about I get out of the car I look down there's a dime on the ground I picked it up and for some reason I went to look at the year on the dime it was scratched out I mean just crazy story I have the jars of these dimes and I don't keep them all and I tried to put them in a book at one point but yeah God is real and he loves us and he loves communicating with us he loves talking to us yeah I I often tell people in my daily life but also on this podcast that you know the universe God spirit whatever you want to call it it's just waiting for relationship and it's waiting for you to initiate it and say I'm ready I'm open what what kind of conversation do you want to have how do we begin this and it's almost like it's waiting with bated breath waiting I'm waiting and patience is a virtue I would say and one that God is very very good at also I think you know God has to have a sense of humor I think often with me because I'm I'm so impatient and I'm also very salty and so and I also have told many people that I feel like God is a nag and a monkey on my back and so I always I just envision this thing where God is like careful guys that one over there is a little salty so you gotta be patient with that one I mean she'll complain for a few days but then she'll get around to it so but I do think that that is is first of all I have to tell you I was getting goosebumps when you were telling me that story about the dime coming out of the golf bag and the sound and both you and your brother thinking what what was are your brother saying what was that but you already kind of knew I think that's so astonishing but I I think it does absolutely ratify or emphasize that once you open yourself up and you kind of I would say make a contract or agree to begin relationship or conversation that all bets are off and you never know what kind of magic is gonna surface or what kind of miracles gonna happen or or even I mean honestly what kind of conversation you're gonna have of course you have no idea what the conversation is gonna look like but it's exciting because that means every day when you wake up you never know what kind of adventure you're going to have amen and just to just to be open to it just to say hey yeah God how are you gonna show up today and I think something that's very important is to realize that God doesn't necessarily talk to us all the same way and that's okay and we need to be very careful about comparing our experience to somebody else's and feeling less than it's okay you know and I've had dreams I know somebody else who doesn't get dreams she gets visions I think a vision would be really cool but I get dreams and I I hear things so yeah I but like like just the symbol thing I mean that was that was so cool and just being open and willing willing to partner willing to co-labor willing to listen willing to talk I'm curious how you would feel about this kind of question slash statement do you think that if you have a more childlike heart or have a great imagination or or have been kind of fascinated by the arts like you with music me with my horrible dancing and swing choir and my writing and what have you do you think those kind of natures of people are more readily disposed to having a conversation with God oh that is a great question I kind of think of some of the people I I would be curious and I don't know this but I would be very curious if you surveyed people who are committed atheists about their professions you know are more people who are atheists also scientists or also mathematicians you know they're the flip side of that is people who really study science really see the the beauty of God and the fact that there has to be another hand in here there is a man at our church who is very much the professor he is very much that intellectual science and like he's all about the time frames and the Bible and the geology and the dinosaurs look I don't care I like I really I just don't care he does and and he is all about that and he is every bit as a committed Christian as anybody but I I would typically think that maybe it is a little harder for them but maybe they need more concrete proof maybe I don't know I love dinosaurs I want everyone to know that just to put that out there so we have this thing and it's not far from where I live and it's called dinosaur Valley you got to come down sometime like come down and we'll go I'll take you okay it's famous it's famous yes yes you can go walk in the footsteps of the dinosaurs yeah you come down we'll go okay deal deal deal deal um well would you like to share any other stories I always ask as a last question um okay let me think what oh yes I want to tell you so somebody recently asked me like what what's something I'm very very proud of and so the night that my husband died I laid in bed with my boys they were 13 and 15 at the time and I said I can't let this be the last good day that they've had we we have to fight our way back to joy and if I want them to be happy again I have to show them that it's okay and I have to show them out and we have a very very good relationship and I'm so proud of that relationship but I gotta tell you when I got married again and we just I wanted a church wedding I wanted to celebrate what God had done in our lives we each had one listen we each had one attendant and I never got on Pinterest and we only had a cake-and-punch reception it can be done people it can be done but cake-and-punch reception and my youngest son gets up and he gives the speech that put everybody in the room in tears and he talked about how he didn't realize until recently how hard it was for me and the sacrifices that I made and and what I did and how hard I worked to give them the lives that they have today and the example I set for them and like I'm a puddle of ooze like my mouth is open you know this and so well-spoken 23 year old young man and then my second my older son gets up there and I'm like I can't handle another one of these I don't know what I'm gonna do and my second son grabs the mic and he goes Don thanks for taking our mom antique shopping so we don't have to and the whole church bursts into laughter and I'm like yes yes these are my boys this is what I fought for this is what we fought for this is seeing his goodness in the land of the living their dad would be so proud the gratitude the appreciation the love the faith the resilience and they've still got their sense of humor about them and it was just that will that will go down as one of the proudest moments in my life I'm sure someday a grandchild will top it but for right now that's up there all right everyone you have just listened to the very next episode of the podcast and my interview with Kim Gilson I hope you found her just as enchanting as I do and can rest a little easier tonight knowing that there are beautiful humans out in the world creating laughter creating memories and creating a better world for all of us to live in now all of you I just want to say thanks for listening and if you can find it in your hearts to do so please do consider leaving a rating or writing a little review you have no idea really no idea how much those ratings and reviews help other people find this little labor of love of mine thank you for listening and here's my one request be like Kim be unapologetic be one of those people that brings beauty into the world that is shameless about creating good for others creating laughter for others show up every day even though we all know we all know the struggle is real we all know this world can be a hard place a difficult place a place that will break your heart but show up like Kim believing in the goodness of other people and believing in the goodness of this world and pretty soon I'm hoping and of course I'm guessing that this world will actually turn out to be a lot more beautiful and a lot more incredible just because you yes you you wished for it