How to be an Alchemist
The Motorcycle Accident
Photo Image: , a natural born alchemist, wearing a white cotton shirt and khaki colored sun hat sits on a vibrant, royal blue beach blanket on the soft sand facing the cerulean colored ocean, in southern coastal California, USA.
Intentions
This is a short, true story about how simple intentions can save our lives or that of another.
I’ve survived multiple car crashes, environmental disasters, severe trauma abuse, and a medical diagnosis that prognosticated my death in 2018. I’ve also experienced incredible luck, gifts of generosity, and tremendous, joyful love in my life. As a result, I do not leave the house without setting my intentions.
My family and I are not religious; but we choose to believe in forces greater than ourselves to help guide us, as we feel that is part of how and why we have survived as long as we have. Each day and night, we say a protection prayer, not just for ourselves and our loved ones, but so too for those around us—perfect strangers near and far.
The Accident
A few days ago, I was driving in the neighborhood of my nearby beach community (where so many of my stories take place). Traffic slowed, and all three lanes stopped for a “keep clear” path marked in the road.
As so often happens during these scenarios, a car heading the opposite way took this opportunity, when traffic was stopped and a clear path was open, to turn left and cross all three lanes.
I was in lane three, closest to this white car which was pulling out right in front of me, when I had a sudden feeling of impending doom. When these moments happen to me, and they happen often, time seems to slow down, I center myself, and repeat my protection prayer.
Just then, a kid, a young man (who may or may not have been the one we helped save from the pier) flew by on a motorcycle, between lanes two and three. He hit the corner of the white car, flipped in the air, followed by his motorcycle flipping in the air and falling on top of him.
Shattered pieces of his bike flew everywhere. I turned my engine off and jumped out of my car, hurrying to where he was just a few feet from me. Incredibly, he stood up and appeared to be perfectly fine. He was yelling at the woman. She was saying, “I didn’t even see you.” I don’t know if any of us did. I certainly didn’t see or hear him. He must have been going so fast that there wasn’t even a blur. He just appeared, and he hit her car. She didn’t hit him, at least from my perspective; but who knows? From lane one, it may have looked like she hit him; and from lane two, it may have looked like they hit each other. That’s the thing about truth: it’s dependent on perspective, and we often get to choose the perspective that serves us most. This is a part of alchemy.
My thought was, “If the cars in all three lanes were stopped, why did he think it was OK to keep driving?” I was taught, for example, that if you see a bus stopped, don’t go around it because there’s probably people in the cross walk you can’t see. This was a similar situation. We have to stop thinking that we are the exception to the rule, that if everyone else is stopped, it must mean we can go. This is the entitlement of individualism, where we lose our common humanity and forget our oneness. My hand went to my heart, and I said a prayer of thanks that everyone was OK.
I should add that California has a law that allows motorcyclists to drive between lanes, when traffic is slow or stopped. This increases the danger of a motorcyclist being hit by a car; and therefore, everyone—motorcyclists and drivers alike—must be more alert on the roads. Nevertheless, they should teach these cautionary scenarios in driver’s education: that if other cars halt, motorcyclists should yield as well, until they know why the cars have stopped.
I didn’t want to keep blocking traffic; so I turned to walk back to my car, once I saw that others were helping him to move out of the street. That’s when I felt a voice—not heard a voice—but felt, sensed, a woman saying, “Thank you for the prayer: it made a difference.”
I don’t think that this means my prayer alone made the difference; but I do think that all of our prayers collectively do make an important difference. That motorcyclist not only survived the accident, but he also appeared to be unscathed by it. What I witnessed was a true miracle.
Alchemy
This feeling of calm connectedness came over me; and this woman—maybe she was a spirit, a deceased family member of the boy, a guardian angel, or a figment of my imagination—began to convey to me a message. While I will share it as words, that’s not how it was transmitted. It was a type of telepathy: a knowing and feeling of silent communication. This is what she said…
“All of these years, you have wondered if your prayers for strangers make a difference; and this was a moment that I can assure you it has.” I asked how prayer works, as I have so often in life. I think of the scene in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which all the townspeople pray for George Bailey; and that gets the attention of God and the angels. I never understood that: it felt like a popularity contest, as if only those people who know people who pray can and will be heard by God and protected by the angels.
The message I received, again, was more like a knowing, a transmission of information without words, to the best of my ability, this is what I understood she was saying to me: “Prayer is alchemy: it has the power to change things. Prayer is the act of setting an intention for good, for peace, for protection. That intention is a vibration, like a mood shift, a song choice. You can be in a bad or fearful mood but choose to sing a different song: set an intention for peace through the act of prayer, meditation, breath, or stillness. The act, of setting the intention, tunes your personal song/vibe (vibration) into the collective frequency (choir) of that specific vibration.
Your prayer is your song choice (setting an intention to choose a better vibe) that you’d only hear on a certain radio station (frequency) and the act of singing it (vibrating in that space) helps you find that station (frequency) where many other people like you are singing and listening at the same time.
The collective/choir (all of the other people in the world who are holding that same mental and spiritual intention, who are singing the same song at the same time) becomes a shared prayer that is strengthened by the amount of people who are vibrating in that space, joining the same frequency.
Just one individual praying for peace can look like a single person trying to push a car uphill all alone. The alchemy happens when that prayer aligns with the prayers (intentions/songs) of others, strengthens it, and turns one pair of hands into an entire community of conscious awareness and helping hands. The thoughts we think make a difference in our lives and the lives of others. We don’t just shape our own realities through alchemy, we shape everyone’s reality.”
I gave thanks for her spirit tutorial and music analogy, turned on my tunes; and as I drove back home, I heard “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly and the Family Stone: “Time is passing, I grow older, things are happening fast. All I have to hold on to is a simple song, at last.”
Today
I’m choosing to publish this piece on June 14, 2025 (Donald Trump’s birthday), the day of the No Kings Protest, by the 50501 Movement which stands for: 50 states, 50 protests, 1 movement. It was named as a response to an AI generated meme of Trump wearing a crown with the caption, “Long live the King.” Today, a military parade that Trump is essentially throwing for himself will coincide with protests against him and ICE, all across the country, perhaps even the world. This is happening just days after Israel attacked Iran. Today, Iran retaliated; and the United States of America is helping Israel intercept missiles. The entire planet is touching chaos, while precariously posed on the precipice of peace. I’m extending my hand and inviting you to pray with me, for peace. If prayer is an uncomfortable word for you, I offer setting an intention for peace in its place.
May we all be alchemists today, and every day.
This is part three in the How We Mother the World: Acts of Righteousness series
Part One: The Righteous 36
Part Two: Saving a Strangers Life
After I witnessed an unknown poet have her work usurped, I was given the legal advice to place the following © date and statement on all my work: ©Sage Justice, June 14, 2025. www.SageWords.org This concept/theory/poem is original to Sage Justice. If you use it, please give credit and link to original work. Thank you.
Photo Image: Sage Justice, wearing a white, cotton, button down shirt is smiling warmly with chocolate brown hair framing her face as she sits in front of her Youtube set. In the background we see fragments of a vintage globe from the 1950s, an emerald green, diamond shaped glass vase with flowers and a metal sign that reads, “Fairy Crossing” Books about Paris, Italy, and world history as well as a book Sage wrote entitled FREEDOM, also line the shelf.
Sage Justice is an award-winning poet, author, critically acclaimed performing artist, and intensely sincere, bold humanitarian activist.
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This is so beautiful, “your prayer is your song is choice”
I needed this transmission today.
Beautiful piece. I'd like to add that I agree we should focus on safety. I wouldn't agree that following others' example is ever a good rule to live by.