I was faced with an eye opening experience a few days ago. Along with being a musician and blogger, I am also an avid surfer. I currently reside in the sunny southern California town of Oceanside, although I grew up in the Monterey Bay of Northern California. Monterey is home to some of the biggest, cleanest surf in the world, but it is located in the terrifying cold waters of the Pacific Ocean's Red Triangle. Shark attacks in my hometown are not uncommon and the thought of a shark attack is always in the back of surfers minds. When it came to sharks, my mom always taught me to listen to my gut. She said that your body would know if there was the danger of a shark before you would.
At around 8:30 am, I was checking the surf excited about getting in the ocean. Yet, as I was suiting up, I simply had a bad feeling about going in the water. I decided to just sit in the car for a bit and listen to the radio. The second I turned on the radio, NPR blared with a disturbing story of a woman who had just been attacked by a great white at a beach near Camp Pendleton around 6pm the night before. The attack was about 5 miles away from where I was about to surf, and had occurred not even 24 hours before!
This experience brings up an important lesson. Most of the time, we are told to think before we do something. It is not often that we are reminded to listen to our guts. As humans, we are gifted with excellent intuition to warn us of danger, and I think it is important to always pay attention to that. Whether you are judging a relationship, walking to your car alone, or trying to decide whether or not it is a good time to follow your dream, your intuition will always guide you in the right direction.
Sincerely,
Miranda Zipse
