Follow Your Intuitions + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

I had a really great post planned for today, but dang it, I got the flu! It started Saturday night, with a very suspicious scratchy throat and a slight cough. The next morning the cough was worse and I powered through it, with the help of my trusty cough drops. I literally ate the whole bag to keep from coughing my brains out. By the time 10 pm rolled around, I was achy, cold, and miserable. Nothing to do but put on my essential oil diffuser, rub down with my favorite muscle relaxant, take a flu tablet, and try to get some sleep. It was a restless and miserable night. I finally got out of bed at 1 pm today, struggled through the most basic tasks, and was grateful that I didn't have work to worry about, or little ones to depend on me, like one time a long time ago.

When I was married to my first husband, he would disappear for a couple of days and I usually knew when he'd be back and why he'd gone. After our little girl passed away, it became more like weeks at a time. I wouldn't know where he was or when he would return. Eventually it turned into months, and finally he disappeared with my two boys. 

In the days when he started to disappear for weeks at a time, I was consigned to a life of taking care of my boys on my own, doing the best I could for them without his support much of the time. I was somehow O.K. with that, because I had my little Joseph, who filled the void of my lost daughter 3 years before. I knew that my husband wasn't quite right mentally (diagnosed with rapid cycle Bi-polar disorder and retired from the Air Force permanently) and hoped that he would eventually pull out of whatever it was he was going through. It was a very naiive thought on my part because you don't generally just "pull out" of mental illness. Then the flu hit us, and hit us all hard. I couldn't walk, couldn't hold anything down, and was becoming dehydrated. But so were my boys. We were living in rural Southwest Virginia. It was 1996, and we didn't have any cell service. My family all lived on the other side of the country. I hated to bother people, as my friends lived a minimum of 20 miles away, as the crow flies. Somehow, though, a friend of mine had found out that my husband was gone and had been for awhile. 

That particular day, she got her husband to drive her, along with a load of firewood (the main way we all heated our houses) and some food, to our home. I was so amazed that she came right at the time when I was at the lowest I could get. She brought much needed relief and the means to continue on and make it through that ordeal.

There have been people who have done really sweet and wonderful things for me since then, but I don't think I will ever forget that special act of service. How did she know? She didn't! She just followed a prompting or a thought and followed through with it. 

I have since tried to follow through with my own intuitions and promptings to help those around me, who may be struggling. Just before I got sick I was able to follow a little nagging thought and check up on an elderly friend. I had just seen her the day before and she had a slight (or so I thought) scratchy throat. It turned out that she contracted pneumonia and the next day went to the hospital. She also didn't call me. But I'm glad that I followed that prompting. I was able to bring her some food and give her some encouragement. Isn't that what friends are for? 

Have you ever followed your intuition to help someone? Or has a friend stepped in right when you needed it the most?

 Today is "My Post Monday!", a curation of the week's best original content. It's all about posts from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!)