It all started with a dream for Natchez resident Pat Patterson. Patterson says her ability to write two Christmas songs this year, stems back to a dream she had Thanksgiving Day in 1998. A musician and music teacher at the Central Alternative School, she looks at the experience as a miracle.

&uot;The miracle was, I was supposed to get my music out and write some special music,&uot;&160;Patterson said.

She wrote her two songs:&160;&uot;What Christmas Really Means&uot; and &uot;Thank You Lord For Saving Me,&uot; last June following what she refers to as a revelation from God.

&uot;With no practice, and very little thought, they flowed from my mind like running water,&uot; Patterson wrote in a recent column.

In her Thanksgiving dream, Patterson saw a deceased Natchez resident, Cenetta Luster, pushing a cart at Natchez Under-The-Hill.

Following the event, Patterson says a string of connected occurrences followed that involved Luster and her family. For example, six months after the dream, Patterson went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store and inadvertently purchased a briefcase that had belonged to Luster.

Other events along the way compelled her to sit down last summer and compose her music.

&uot;I’ve been going around telling everyone about my miracle and singing my songs,&uot; Patterson said.

Money for Patterson to produce the songs on her own also fell into place. Copies of the music are now in the hands of singer C.C. Winans in New York, she said. &uot;Everybody is really excited when they hear about the miracle,&uot; she said.

Patterson is giving away all 500 copies of her tape. &uot;I want all of them out in people’s homes so they can listen to the message and do what it says,&uot; she said.