Lynn M Mark 01/19/22
“One of the things Jung taught was that the human psyche is the mediation point for God. If God wants to speak to us, God usually speaks in words that first feel like our own thoughts. How else could God come to us? We have to be taught how to honor and allow that, how to give it authority, and to recognize that sometimes our thoughts are God’s thoughts.” Richard Rohr, Meditation, 11/21/21
I am an INFP in the Myers-Briggs Trait Inventory. The N stands for “Intuition”. According to a guide to the MBTI, this trait helps me focus on the future, believe in possibilities, recognize patterns, think figuratively and theoretically, and rely on my 6th sense. The guide says Intuitives “tend to generate concepts, trends and patterns”; and “bring imagination and multiple courses forward to problem solving”. These words feel comfortable and familiar to me.
I know when I listen to thoughts that bubble up from seeming nowhere, something new is coming, some idea that I can examine and imagine and create. If there is a problem to be solved and I let my mind wander around about it, a solution will come to the forefront of my thinking. If I have a sense about a possible activity or action and I am able to give it the time to coalesce in my thoughts I will generate a concept that I can then flesh out and bring it to life.
The words from Richard Rohr’s meditation this morning resonated with me and I had to read them several times, sensing their absolute truth and feeling excitement in my gut. Rose and I were talking about this very thing yesterday at breakfast – about listening to inner thoughts that can and do manifest as actions. Creativity comes from this place within where God speaks to me. My responsibility is to listen and ponder and see where I am led.
In my nursing career, especially in my time as a hospice nurse, my intuition educated me over and over to what was happening with a patient. I would get a sense of the root cause of a particular type of suffering, and know what to ask from the doctor or other hospice staff. More often than not, I was absolutely spot on. It took me a little while of learning the ins and outs of hospice care before I trusted my intuition fully. A skeptic might say that I was simply recalling what I had learned about symptom management. I believe that played a part in knowing what to ask for once I had determined what the problem was. But the sure knowledge of what was needed came to me from a quiet place within. I feel like this is 10% science and 90% intuition.
Sometimes when people ask my nursing advice I know how to answer them. I give suggestions based on what my gut tells me to say. Some of this is from having spent 46 years as a practicing nurse and having a storehouse of health information in my brain. Some of it bubbles up from an unknown source, and that is why I think I might have some intuitive healer in me. I know that Terri is one such person. We have compared notes and, while I’m not as developed as she is, I have some abilities when it comes to knowing how to respond to a health question.
Jan and I were talking about what to do over Christmas. I got a strong sense that I should reach out to Ted and Sarah and see what they were doing. As a result, I went to LA for Christmas and spent as much time with them as we can. Did we invite ourselves, or did God whisper that there is an opportunity to see them? We rarely see them because of distance and work commitments, so this Christmas gift made my heart very happy. I’m so glad I listened to my gut and made the call!