How Do You “Know?”
Written by: Melanie Groves; Circle the Child
Do you ever wish you could go back and do things over? Now that I have started to really embrace my “knowing” and understand what that feels like and when to follow that guidance, I would love a time machine to go back and explore other times when “knowing” showed up in my life. After last week’s post, I was asked, “How do you ‘know?‘” For me, it shows up in tingles. It can be tingling around my head, as though a crown, tingles in my hands, or if really intense, full head to toe tingles that send shivers down my spine, causing goosebumps, and my little arm hairs all to stand up at attention.
From conversations I have had, it seems the “knowing” bit shows up differently for everyone. I am curious. I want to know how it shows up for my kids too. My kids are the tweeny age now so they are getting to the point where when I talk about tuning into that inner feeling, they roll their eyes, or smirk as if to say, “Oh mom.” It wasn’t always like that though. Let me tell you a story of a 4-year-old who “knew”.
It was a beautiful summer evening. It was the first time ever we were taking our kids camping. It was one night only and twenty minutes from home. The best part was we’d scored a great campsite where we had multiple families of friends with us.
The kids were exhausted from a sweaty afternoon and evening of attempting to help put up tents, hiking and running around. They were all pyjama’d up and we had just walked back to the site from having brushed our teeth and taken care of bathroom needs. The sun was setting and the temperature was perfect. Hugs all around for all the kiddos and into the tents we went to hopefully lull the kids to sleep and perhaps enjoy an adult drink around the campfire.
That’s when the problems started. Our 4-year-old started freaking out. Full on meltdown. Screaming that we had to leave, RIGHT NOW. Hysterical. Unconsolable. It was so bizarre. It was a full out tantrum which we would have expected from our 18-month-old at the time but that kid was just calmly watching the scene unfold. At the time, our 4-year-old was the kid we could reason with, use logic, talk it out with. We had never encountered this with him and the scene got so loud we gave up our attempts at talking, packed the kids up in the car in the pitch dark, and headed home. It was only 20 minutes away so we’d head back first thing in the morning and take down camp in daylight. Even as we were driving off the site he was still sobbing hysterically. Practically hyperventilating. It was so intense. He has never since then displayed such a drastic outburst.
The closer we got to home, the calmer he got. We had no sooner pulled into our driveway that the rain started. It was a heavy downpour and within minutes the lightning show and thunder concert were in full swing. It was a summer storm the likes of which I hadn’t seen in a long time.
The next morning we woke up first thing and came back to the campsite. The families we had camped with were still nestled in their tents. I opened our tent to find everything inside soaked and floating in water. Head to toe chills.
Even as I recount this incident I can feel the chills I felt that morning. Somehow, that precious 4-year-old knew that sleeping here would have been disastrous or less dramatically, really wet and loud and unpleasant. He saved us from a really uncomfortable night. I wish then I could have asked him how he “knew”. What was his sign? What did he feel to know we needed to leave right then and there? That’s the wish of going back. Knowing what I know now, I wonder if I could have helped him keep in touch with his knowing. When I recount the story to him to remind him that he has that gift, he hears it as a story. I want him to hear it as his truth. He’ll get there when he is meant to. And when he does, I’ll be ready with my questions. In the meantime, I’ll keep sharing my knowings. The more we talk about intuition as being a normal part of life here on earth, the more it will become just a normal topic.
So, what’s your sign for your knowing? I’d love to hear it!
