A Message From the Universe

I have only heard God's voice once.

I've had insights, flashes of understanding, feelings of closeness with the Universe and so on, but only once did God actually speak to me out loud.



I wasn't expecting it at all. I was walking down Brommer Avenue in Santa Cruz, passing by the mall. I was pushing a stroller although I can't remember what child was in it. He or she was asleep.

I was lost in my thoughts when all of a sudden a huge, loud voice coming somewhere up above and behind me said:

"Psssssstttt!"

It scared the crap out of me. I jumped and froze on the sidewalk and looked all around. I was in the middle of a busy district, coming up on a crossroads of multiple lane roads, but there was no one - no car, no truck, no person - in sight. I was all alone (except for the baby). And God.

Now, I have a number of rational explanations for this: it was an overcast day - sound carries - maybe a truck was letting off steam or something a block or two away. After joking about it for awhile with my friends and family, it just became another good story to trot out now and then (like I am today).

But I've always thought that if God was talking to me, it was the perfect things to say. Short and sweet. "Jennifer - pay attention!" Too bad it didn't work. Or maybe it did - that was back when I knew my life needed to change. Maybe God was trying to wake me up to the alternatives. Maybe he was warning me something big was coming down the pike.

I'm bringing this up today because signs are coming thick and fast that I'd better shape up and start paying attention again. "Stop!" they're saying (and they aren't all red and hexagonal). "Quit thrashing around. There is something important going on."

Now if they'd only tell me what it is.