How can we sense danger before it occurs? How do we attract total strangers who appear, out of the blue, when we need help?
Mystics say we're all connected. Quantum physicists agree.
I started working with Intuition as a lark: a bunch of us Romance writers piled into a hotel room during a regional writers conference. We were giddy and giggling, because we'd volunteered to have our fortunes told by a fantasy writer who was studying Tarot cards.
Several years later, I started working as a marketer for a psychiatric hospital. Over lunch one day, one of my therapist friends assured me that everybody has Intuition. I couldn't imagine a more exciting concept.
"How do I learn how to work with my Intuition?" I asked him eagerly. "Can it help me be a more creative writer? Can it help me stretch my Imagination?"
He shrugged. "Sure. Go to the book store. Read up on the connection between Intuition and Imagination."
The book store. I grinned. Of course!
When I set out to develop my Intuition, I wanted to get better at tapping my Creativity. I never imagined that I would wind up saving a child's life!
But I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Here's a true story from my "writing life:"
The day I met Charlie, I had sneaked out for a 90 minute lunch and was worried that I would be missed at my full-time marketing job. I had no business book shopping, and yet my Intuition was urging me to take a driving detour and turn my car into the parking lot.
I thought this hunch was strange. I was already 40 minutes late. Surely I would be missed at my desk! Why visit a book store and risk the wrath of my boss? She considered timeliness next to Godliness.
My Intuition had been this persistent only once before: on the day that it had saved me from being lured to my car by a mugger. I had learned to differentiate between Intuition and Imagination, and my gut was telling me -- literally -- that another life-changing event was about to occur.
Uneasy but curious, I climbed out of my car and walked past the various stores that surrounded the book store. I tried to imagine all the positive reasons for my gut feeling's urge to go book shopping at that exact time.
Maybe I would meet an old friend, a new business contact, or a reader who would profess to be my biggest fan. Better yet, maybe I would bump into a gorgeous bachelor who would invite me to the caf for coffee and a not-too-distant happily-ever-after!
I wandered through the aisles. Few people were in the store that Thursday afternoon, and even fewer of them were men. Instead of bumping into a gorgeous bachelor, I stumbled across a young mother.
She was sprawled upon the floor with a half-dozen gardening books. Behind her, and clearly bored, a tow-headed toddler was climbing the shelves. He was well on his way to the "D" section when I heard his mother call, "Charlie, get down!"
Sighing, I strolled to the next aisle. Had I misinterpreted my gut feeling? Intuition and its hunches could be so tricky. I recalled my many misfires, the early days when I'd tried to guess who was calling me on the phone, or how fast the pizza guy would deliver my dinner.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking, and my boss was surely wondering where I was. I felt like an idiot.
Suddenly, Intuition seized my feet. I don't know how else to explain it. I had no conscious intention to walk to the front of the book store, but there I was, responding to some magnetic pull.
At first, I assumed that I was being released from my Wild Goose Chase, that I'd received some Higher Blessing to leave the building. Then I heard giggles. A blond bullet whizzed past me and barreled out the door.
I recognized Charlie, dashing gaily for the parking lot and the freeway on the other side. No one was at the cashier's counter to stop him. I was the only witness.
My heart stalled.
"Charlie!" I shouted, running out the door.
The driver never saw him.
It all happened so fast. There I was, calmly grabbing on to a child I didn't know. And there he was, throwing himself into the arms of a stranger, putting his utter trust in me as I dragged him out of harm's way.
If I'd hesitated in that split second, if I'd refused to follow my Intuition's urging to walk to the front of the book store, Charlie's mad dash into the parking lot would have ended very differently. There were no other pedestrians on the sidewalk -- no other bystanders who might have saved him from that car.
My knees were quaking when I took Charlie's tiny hand in mine and led him back inside the store. I found his mother exactly where I'd left her, pouring over the gardening books.
She'd never noticed that her son was missing.
As I develop my Intuition, I can't help but wonder. How can we know that an event will occur before it happens?
Mystics say we're all connected in miraculous ways. Even scientists are starting to agree.
Maybe that's how I received the intuitive S.O.S. that turned me into Charlie's guardian angel that day.
Award-winning Romance novelist, Adrienne deWolfe, ardently believes in the Law of Attraction (thanks to Charlie). She writes about her adventures with Intuition, Imagination, Creativity, and the Writing Muse at http://writingnovelsthatsell.com/. Follow her at http://Twitter.com/AdriennedeWolfe.