The first sight of a niece's new boyfriend made my gut lurch in an unpleasant way. Yet I talked myself out of the feeling. After all, he was a well-liked, handsome fellow who said all the right words and played all the right notes. Turns out he wasn't as charming as he seemed to be.

In 1999, about 2 weeks before my Mom died in another city, I had a strong urge to go visit her. It wasn't until after she died that I realized my inner connection to her had been strong and reliable.

When a smashed up car on a tow truck passed by me one day, I had a sudden inexplicable pain in my left forearm. Realizing that the pain wasn't about me I looked at the crashed car and saw a lot of damage right where the driver might have thrown up an arm during the crash. I wondered if the driver broke an arm. As soon as I acknowledged that might be the case, the pain in my arm vanished. It was simple information asking me to notice it. I learned later that the driver did break her arm.

Just because I 'heard' my intuition doesn't mean I had to act upon it. With Mom, my intuition wasn't telling me I had to go, it may just have been her loving call to say "Goodbye," reaching out over the distance to clasp my hand. The woman who was hurt in the car crash sent out a strong emotional signal of distress at the moment of the crash. All her volatile energy needed from me was acknowledgment and perhaps compassion. As for my niece, there was no way I could interfere with her while she was getting to know her new boyfriend. It wasn't my business.

Trust in my inner feelings can build, whether I act on them or not. Trust is built by being aware of the ways my intuition calls to me, noticing them, and then watching to see how events play out. Each time I see how accurate it is, I trust it more. I don't worry when it get it wrong; my eyes deceive me now and then, too.

Trust requires my willingness to be open to where life might take me, to believe that life is working with me, not against me. Trusing my intuition isn't trusting just my intuition so much as it is trusting the vast, incomprehensible, interconnected wisdom of us all.