Do spiritual experiences involve gas stations?
I had a...strange occurrence on the way home from UNCA and I'm not completely sure what to make of it.
I got about a mile from the I-26 East entrance when I realized I was down to only a quarter of a tank of gas, hardly enough to get me over the mountains and down the 120 miles to Knoxville. Problem was that outside of a very small area I have no idea where anything is in Asheville and turning back around seemed like too much effort when most interstates have a gas station at every exist.
Now, as many of you may not know, driving makes me rather uncomfortable and getting lost while driving, especially on the highways, scares the hell out of me. I spent somewhere around ten minutes going up one exit, turning around, going back down that exit and going back down the highway the other way, etc. etc., getting extremely panicky about whether I would even be able to find the right way again.
And then I got a hug. Or at least what felt like a hug, something soft and warm and a hand stroking my hair saying 'shh, it's all right, just keep looking--now see, there's one, now just go up this exit here, turn here, ah, here it is." Just like that. Made me feel safe, or at least as if any possible mistakes I made would be easily remedied and hardly life-threatening.
So I got my gas and I start going down the highway again, feeling a good bit more secure than I usually do when I'm going down the narrower bits of the interstate that go out of Asheville. Usually I'd be terrified of running into walls or missing the exit or getting pulled over by a police officer for some small rule I had inadvertently broken. Today...less so.
The presence hung about for a while as I went on, passively warm and reassuring now that I had my nerve back. A few miles down the road I'm given a rather firm nudge to go into the left lane. 'But I don't want to go into the left lane', I think rather firmly. 'It's faster and there's no real point in it and there's no chance of me going off into an exit by accident because it's all two lane roads from here.'
My comforting companion is not pleased with my refusal and I'm left feeling rather awkward for the next mile or two before I finally submit and pull into the left lane. For an agnostic I tend to be rather superstitious.
Almost immediately I'm cornered by a mack truck pulling up alongside me and an even larger pulling in behind me, practically riding my bumper. I'm getting scared now because there's half a chance I'm going to be slammed into the barrier should one or the other decide to try and get to know me better. I had to speed up beyond my normal mentally-imposed speed barriers (which tend to reside about three or four miles above the speed limit) just to get out of there and duck back into the right lane again.
Having attained some modicum of safety, I set the cruise control and wonder what in the name of Optimus Prime's pants that was all about.
And the reply comes, in a humorous tone. 'Now, wasn't that fun?'
Whoever it is that does like me, they seem to enjoy messing with my head as much as everyone else.
I got about a mile from the I-26 East entrance when I realized I was down to only a quarter of a tank of gas, hardly enough to get me over the mountains and down the 120 miles to Knoxville. Problem was that outside of a very small area I have no idea where anything is in Asheville and turning back around seemed like too much effort when most interstates have a gas station at every exist.
Now, as many of you may not know, driving makes me rather uncomfortable and getting lost while driving, especially on the highways, scares the hell out of me. I spent somewhere around ten minutes going up one exit, turning around, going back down that exit and going back down the highway the other way, etc. etc., getting extremely panicky about whether I would even be able to find the right way again.
And then I got a hug. Or at least what felt like a hug, something soft and warm and a hand stroking my hair saying 'shh, it's all right, just keep looking--now see, there's one, now just go up this exit here, turn here, ah, here it is." Just like that. Made me feel safe, or at least as if any possible mistakes I made would be easily remedied and hardly life-threatening.
So I got my gas and I start going down the highway again, feeling a good bit more secure than I usually do when I'm going down the narrower bits of the interstate that go out of Asheville. Usually I'd be terrified of running into walls or missing the exit or getting pulled over by a police officer for some small rule I had inadvertently broken. Today...less so.
The presence hung about for a while as I went on, passively warm and reassuring now that I had my nerve back. A few miles down the road I'm given a rather firm nudge to go into the left lane. 'But I don't want to go into the left lane', I think rather firmly. 'It's faster and there's no real point in it and there's no chance of me going off into an exit by accident because it's all two lane roads from here.'
My comforting companion is not pleased with my refusal and I'm left feeling rather awkward for the next mile or two before I finally submit and pull into the left lane. For an agnostic I tend to be rather superstitious.
Almost immediately I'm cornered by a mack truck pulling up alongside me and an even larger pulling in behind me, practically riding my bumper. I'm getting scared now because there's half a chance I'm going to be slammed into the barrier should one or the other decide to try and get to know me better. I had to speed up beyond my normal mentally-imposed speed barriers (which tend to reside about three or four miles above the speed limit) just to get out of there and duck back into the right lane again.
Having attained some modicum of safety, I set the cruise control and wonder what in the name of Optimus Prime's pants that was all about.
And the reply comes, in a humorous tone. 'Now, wasn't that fun?'
Whoever it is that does like me, they seem to enjoy messing with my head as much as everyone else.