Trust30 – #22 – Intuition

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?

(Author: Susan Piver)

Back on the #Trust30 stick today. Intuition. I don't think of my intuition as a separate part of myself. But if I did, and we sat down to dinner together, I imagine the first thing he'd say would be along the lines of "Boy, you sure have a hard time listening to me, huh?"

Part of that is allowing time. You need enough mental space to allow that still small voice to come in and whisper. And in today's society, particularly lately, available cycles have been hard to come by. We need to be able to slow down, take some time, and process things. I've been grateful for the chance to do that here. I don't know that it's been useful for anyone else, but it's helped to crystallize my thinking a bit. And in writing, I think I get flashes of inspiration, if not intuition. I think they're related, if not exactly the same. In the non-fiction writing, I get understanding. And in the fiction – hoo – the subconscious starts seeding ideas that you don't know exactly what they mean. You know they're important, but you don't know why. You go with it, and eventually you figure it out, and then you sit back and say something along the lines of "Man, I am one smart/twisted/insane (insert term of endearment HERE)"

While I was living in the Philippines, I had a situation where I needed to re-negotiate a lease with an apartment owner. We had a couple of missionaries living in a place that needed some repairs, and it was my job to work things out with the apartment owner. I remember telling my missionary companion "I'm going to negotiate the heck out of this. I'm going to play them like a fish. Just you watch." Then we sat down across from this poor lady, and I took one look at her, and paused. About two seconds later I found myself saying "We're going to be ending our lease with you. We'll be out of the apartment by X. Thank you very much." And I stood up, and we left. My companion laughed about it, and I felt embarrassed, but it felt like the right thing to do.

A couple of days ago I had a flash of an idea – an inspiration – that will hopefully start taking shape here in the months to come. Right now, it's all about getting the cycles.

Hey, a new issue of FlagShip will be out in a few days. Maybe you should mosey over to www.flyingislandpress.com and take a look at the things we're doing over there.