Intuition: When You Just Get to Knowin’ Something
Submitted by admin on Sun, 06/16/2013 – 14:59
Intuition: “When You Just Get to Knowin’ Something”
For a full year before my parents started in business they had an itch that they should be doing something else. They had moved into the city but made a promise to get their sons back into fresh air as soon as they could. The whole family felt out of sorts, like their real home was elsewhere.
They were waiting, but for what? A psychic told my mom during that time, “This is the strangest thing but I see a house in your future. And it’s driving down the road. It is not a mobile home; it is a real house and it is driving down the road.”
They scouted out an area west of town where they wanted to be and found a plot of land they liked, but there were no finished houses on the market in their budget. Absolutely nothing. Long story short, they got notice that their rental house had been sold and they had to be out pronto. That week my dad was driving past the new I-80 freeway construction and saw a house for sale–to be moved from its current location. He peeled off the road, scribbled the number and told my mom that night, “I found our house.” That plot of land land worked out and they arranged for the house to be delivered, all without thinking once about the psychic. That is, they didn’t until my mom gasped upon seeing their house drive down the road on a truck.
In that house their business began and it grew. When the idea first hit at the kitchen table, it pulsed through my dad and he couldn’t let it go. Mom was more cautious–the idea was way out there–but he seemed to know, to know they had found something special. This might be their destiny. He was right.
They thought this would be their last house, and they did love it for a dozen years until a restless feeling set in again. Their business had stretched and they were spending a lot of time commuting to “the plant,” their production facility. It made sense to look for a bigger place with a garage for a proper office, closer to the plant.
During this time they spotted the perfect house, a newer split level close to everything and with garden plot. For two years whenever we drove past, Mom would day, “If we lived there, we’d be home now.” We moved in right before Christmas when I was in the third grade. They converted the garage and basement into office space and it was perfect. Once again, it was as if they just knew.
Here is the part of the story in which I become my parents. Three years ago my husband-to-be emailed me a real estate listing to illustrate his all-time perfect house, a quintessential Queen Anne Victorian. Since he was a little boy, before he learned what they were called and all the reasons they were special, he daydreamed of living in a Queen Anne. On a whim, we toured it expecting to find a dump for the price. It needed some work, an old house always will, but it took our breath away. We could afford it and made an offer. The sellers accepted but we hit a few snags. It needed more work than I could do on my own, and we weren’t quite engaged yet. He was worried about me living alone in a dodgy neighborhood. The bottom dropped from housing market as AIG filed for bankruptcy that month. The seller wouldn’t budge on repairs and we got cold feet. The timing wasn’t quite right.
We got married and for the next three years, every time we drove downtown, we slowed down past that house and wondered if it was loved. We could tell by the sagging appearance that it wasn’t. We looked at other historic houses, but compared them all to this one, like a first love or the one that got away. A year ago, I predicted in my journal that someday we would live there. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that this was meant to be, and I wanted a record to see if my intuition was right.
Last autumn Milan saw it come up on the MLS and before they had a sign in the yard we were hefting our furniture up the spiral staircase.
I’ve written before about not getting emotionally attached to the inventory. A house is just a house. It’s a place to live and a tool to serve a family’s purposes. If circumstances change, it behooves us to let go. So to be clear, it’s not that I think that our stuff matters in the cosmic scheme. What does intrigue me is the idea that we each have a purpose and there may be times when a move or a job can position us to fulfill the reasons we are here on this earth. So although I have to admit that Milan and I have allowed ourselves to love this place, even though it is just a thing, it feels right for us to be here now.
I also can’t ignore the way there have been times in my life when I just knew something deep in my gut. I remember my dad’s eyes lighting up when he tried to explain this to me, while struggling for the words. He wanted me to trust the light inside that seems to know. “There are times when you just get to knowin’ something. When that happens there is no stopping it, no stopping you.”
Last year I heard someone say, “intuition is knowing without knowing why.” I have experienced that.
Here is one last example. Before I met Milan I had an abiding peace settle over me that my life was on track, even though I was single and not dating. I wondered if it meant that perhaps I wouldn’t ever marry again. Maybe my life was supposed to be a different than the Utah norm, and I felt serenity about this. Then, not too many weeks later something inside me changed all at once. One moment I was content, and the next there was this hole in my heart, like something was now missing. I do not know how I knew, but in a flash (in the restroom of a Subway sandwich shop of all places), I wept for what hadn’t even been missing before. I dried my eyes and knew it was time to date again.
I posted an online profile, met Milan shortly after and we connected on the very first date. He was everything I could never be, completing my life in ways I had never imagined. The timing had been impeccable for many reasons.
I don’t know why intuition speaks to us sometimes, and I don’t know how it works. Are there cosmic forces of destiny at work, or are there times when that sense of knowing leads us to take confident action, thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophesy? Is intuition just an ability to process information in a smarter way than we realize, or is it more like prayer or a higher power leading us toward our purpose? Or I wonder if perhaps there is some truth in each of these hypotheses depending on the circumstances.
I am totally curious about the mechanics, but regardless I have come to recognize that voice inside. I am getting better at listening and being open to where it will lead me. I have seen the miraculous in my life. I believe in this.
Do you? I’d love to hear your perspectives.