If we were having coffee today I’d tell you that I found out this week that my darling bride Gretchen had not been very truthful to me recently. After she told me the details I was not mad. I understood her reasons.
When she first told me she had found a lump in her breast, we initiated a series of diagnostic actions that culminated in a cancer diagnosis and major surgery. She’s doing well now, thank you. She still has significant bouts of pain but she came out of the ordeal with no chemo, no radiation, and, so far at least, no cancer.
Ah, but this week she told me it wasn’t as simple as “she found a lump.” In reality, she had hundreds of lumps and nodes. This was the main reason she had a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy. Every nodule and papilloma was a potential cancer bomb and she was looking at a lifetime of biopsies and surgeries.
So if she hadn’t found a lump, what was it?
She heard a voice.
It wasn’t a physical manifestation but it was just as real as if she had heard it with her ears. Somewhere deep within her soul a voice emerged in early January and said, “You have cancer.”
It unnerved her. I could tell she was more than just concerned, she was visibly upset when she told me she had found a lump. I later wondered to myself how she managed to find one cancerous lump amongst the hundreds of targets in her breasts. I attributed it to luck. Obviously, it was much more.
We’re human. It’s easy to assume others won’t understand if you say you heard a voice. Now, voices, the potential for a deeper problem exists there. But I find the notion of a prophetic warning to be quite acceptable. I cover such things in several of my novels, both published and unpublished. I believe in ghost stories too and I don’t discount many other prophetic happenings.
Whose voice was it? Does it matter? If could have been the massive supercomputer we call the subconscious brain. That’s a clinical answer. Myself, I prefer a more spiritual explanation. The voice of God? Perhaps. Or maybe what people call a guardian angel. Sure, that works for me too. It could have been the spirit of a loved one, like her mother or her grandmother. Heck, my mother passed away in the last year, it might have been her.
It doesn’t matter who said it. Not really. The real point is: she listened.
There are many things in this world that are far beyond our understanding. I think it is best not to question the good things. Miracles? Who am I to say?
Here’s a fun thing: Gretchen has a notion that I really like. When she finds a random penny on the ground, she considers it a reminder that her late mother is watching over her and she picks it up because she considers it to be a gift from her mother. I do it too. Hey, it means someone is looking out for you. Besides, this notion is much better than that “see a penny, pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck” saying.
Have you had similar experiences or do you know someone who has?
If it happens to you, my advice is to LISTEN.
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Thomas Fenske is a writer living in North Carolina. There are prophetic and otherworldly glimmerings in both of his published novels too: http://thefensk.com
If we were having coffee today I’d tell you a little something about pining for the fjords. You’ve probably heard that expression before. It’s from one of my favorite Monty Python routines … The Parrot. I think of that every time I catch sight of a pet gazing off into space, I say they are pining for the fjords.
Scratching the Surface 