I was getting ready to step when I heard a voice that said Stop. I stopped for a moment confused. I went to step again, and heard it louder and more forcefully. STOP. I stopped, then got ready to step again. At this point the voice thundered so loudly I could feel it go up and down my spine. STOP! DANGER! I stopped dead in my tracks and looked down at my feet. Just ahead of me were unexploded ordinance I had not noticed from a cluster bomb. At that point I was able to halt my platoon and slowly back us out of the base complex. No one was hurt.
I have a similar type experience, albeit less dramatic. I was a soccer player in high school and uni and did a lot of running in between seasons to remain conditioned. I had a route I loved to run with huge trees, a stream, and a winding, dirt road (now all of the area are houses
). Anyhow, I liked to run in the evenings and in the winter it was dark before 5pm. As I came up to one of the bends in the road, I heard ‘Stop!’ and had a flash of being attacked…and stuff. I was 17 and it was early 1990s --I was pretty naive and didn’t really know what I know now. My thoughts were–all in microseconds this occurred–I’m not even halfway through my run, I’ve never seen others whilst running, I’ve tun this route a hundred times… followed by another ‘STOP!!’ I turned around and ran home before I got to the bend. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was something, but it was a profound moment and the ‘stop’ had interrupted my thoughts in a pretty abrasive manner. I don’t have proof that I was truly in danger like you did, so this may be a nothing story, but it is still so vivid in my mind all these years later.
A few consolations I’ve experienced involved being alone or with my husband in nature–fly fishing, near rivers, and at the ocean. Another was as I drove home after something happened that utterly devastated me: my whole world fell apart in a manner of minutes and I was on the highway in agony, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw my tear streamed face, and it was like this overwhelming light and peace embraced me (spiritually, there wasn’t a visible or audible experience) and I ‘heard’ God say ‘I love you–you will be okay’. I was about 20yo.
These brief but powerful moments have carried me through many desolations. To be honest, in over a decade since my Dad died and I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I haven’t had any consolations. I’d sorely love one now, but if I never receive another consolation I still have the five or so that I’ve been given in my younger days.
Beautiful thread. Thank you, OP.
