A feeling, a “hunch”, the “I don’t know how I know, but I know” sensation that most of us have probably felt at least once in our lives may be one of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe. Some may define it formally as “intuition” but in my childhood household my mother always referred to it as the “Something just said”. As in, “Something just said to me, ‘Don’t go that way!’” or “Something just said to me, ‘If you want that dress that’s on sale, you’d better buy it now’.” And if I were limited to naming the one most valuable lesson that I learned from my mother it would most definitely have to be her admonishment to, “Always listen to that ‘Something just said’.”
As strange as it sounds it has never failed to be true. I can clearly recall times early in my life when I ignored the “Something just said” voice in my head with disastrous results. When I was dating my ex-husband and his response to my disagreeing with him was to give me the silent treatment, something just said to me, “You need to throw this arrogant, immature young man out of your apartment right now and go find somebody new.” I didn’t. As a result, I endured an unhappy five-year marriage, a bitter divorce and twelve long years as a single parent all because I refused to listen to the “Something just said” voice.
Fortunately, when I met my current husband twenty years ago, I had since learned my lesson. Upon first meeting him, my initial thought was, “He’s kind of cute; but probably not really my type” when something just said to me, “Give that boy a chance; you won’t be sorry,” and now twenty years into a marriage that has successfully weathered some especially challenging situations surrounding work, the death of my son and of both sets of our parents, retirement, and a cross-country move I am happy to report that the “Something just said” was absolutely right.
There have been other times that were not so clear cut; there is no “proof” that listening to the “Something just said” helped me to avoid disaster, although I am still glad that I didn’t decide to test fate. Once, I was on a school field trip with my son’s kindergarten class. We went to Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. It was late in the fall and the zoo was fairly empty. My son and another little boy and his mother and I found ourselves in a section of the zoo that seemed rather deserted. There was an unmarked enclosure some distance away when I suddenly got the strongest “Don’t go back there!” feeling that I had ever had. The voice was so strong, so urgent; I dared not ignore it, although I often wonder, “What or who was back there?”
Some have suggested to me that my reliance on the “Something just said” phenomenon might suggest some undeveloped psychic ability. I’m not sure about that, although I do believe in the possibility of some sort of guardian angel or spirit guide. I think, perhaps that we sometimes carry around too much of a Hollywood impression of how God looks after us and protects us in this life. Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments was impressive, to say the least and while God certainly can work in such a dramatic fashion, I don’t necessarily believe that he must or will “pull out all the stops” every time. The gentle nudge that is not an audible voice but a little more insistent than just a passing thought seems to me to be just the sort of loving gesture that God would provide to steer us in the right direction. It honors the concept of “free will” but also lets us know that God is there in a capacity that shows loving protection in the most unobtrusive way possible. But in the long run, it may not even really matter what we call it or where it comes from as long as we remember to “Always listen to that ‘Something just said.’”
quietlyradical 