A popular tale of a premonition that came true is about the traveler who decided not to board a ship or plane, and then the ship sank or the plane crashed. This seems to verify the strength of premonitions.
But what is rarely considered is the number of people who have premonitions of something happening but nothing happens.
I've been in the latter group many times in my life.
Over ten years ago I woke in the middle of the night feeling certain that a retired minister I knew had died. As far as I know, he is still alive and well.
A few nights ago the phone rang, and I was certain that it was a half-brother calling to say his mother had died. Well, I was partly right. It was my sister-in-law Jean calling to chat. My stepmother's name is also Jean.
Today I had premonitions that cutting down a tree at our cabin would not go well. The tree would fall on me. The tree might bounce and clunk me in the face. I might do something stupid with the chain saw. I would have liked my wife to have taken a movie of the tree falling, but I felt that would be a jinx.
The tree fell within ten degrees of where I wanted it to fall. I delimbed the tree and cut it into rounds suffering only a slightly stiff back from bending over.
But I won't give up on premonitions. I know it will snow in Duluth in the next two weeks.
