Intuition

Some knowing arrives before its reasons do.

Some understanding arrives all at once. We sense the shape of something before we can name its parts, the way a note can feel right before we could explain why. The reasons take longer. Finding words for a feeling can be part of understanding it, but the feeling was already asking for our attention.

I have learned to listen to the first clear feeling before the long argument that follows it. I mean the quiet, steady read beneath the impulse or the wish. It can notice something I have not yet learned to say. I want to give it room before I explain it away.

That feeling deserves to be tested. Familiarity, fear, and hope can speak quietly too. I can ask what I may be missing, listen to someone who sees it differently, and notice what happens when I follow it. Sometimes the reasons give shape to what I sensed. Sometimes they ask me to reconsider.

This is where thinking helps. It gives a first understanding somewhere to go: into words, into conversation, into an action whose consequences I can learn from. Trusting intuition means being willing to follow its signal and remain open to what I find.

Stillness gives me a better chance of hearing it. When the noise settles, I can notice what has been there beneath the effort to reach an answer. Sometimes a direction becomes clear. Sometimes I simply know where to look more closely.

Listen to the first signal. Stay open to what follows.

Curtis