Monday, January 23, 2012

Reading


I love reading and have since I was four, for I was a bit of a long time "only" for the Catholic Irish family of that era, so my father had both the time and inclination to teach me and insure an everlasting addiction by marching me to the library and getting me my very own library card.

But this post is not about books. This post is about people. Reading people. Especially strangers who subsequently reveal more about themselves and confirm my very first take on them.

Some have it that I have the second sight, like my granny before me. I believe I do. I can read handwriting. And tea-leaves. But I truly believe that such readings are in the realm of psychology, reading the eyes, the face, the body language, the walk. Most are awestruck at my ability. I've predicted a few nasty events, to the point where I stopped handwriting analysis, too much is revealed in the flourishes, the upsweeps, the downturns, of someome's psychic condition. I don't want to know if an inherent carelessness results in a bad accident. Or too vulnerable a core results in a suicide. (Yes, these and more actually happened).

Someone I met recently had such pain in her eyes I speculated privately about the depth of it. Today, at a book club meeting, she briefly referred to a horrific marriage years ago that left her and her four, now adult, children scarred and damaged. I nodded internally.

After the meeting she came over to me and said: "I've known you in some other life, I knew your name before you even spoke it for the first time, do you think that's freaky?"

"No," I said, "For I've known all about you too."

14 comments:

  1. I read peoples eyes. I can tell if a woman is pregnant sometimes even before she knows it herself.

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  2. GM:
    Yes I knew you would have the second sight also. It is an extraordinary gift and never to be taken frivolously. As you undoubtedly know.
    XO
    WWW

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  3. I lived within walking distance of our lovely large town library. It was a daily trip in the summer.

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  4. My mother who was also Irish had a gift of what I think was the "second sight".Before our first child was born she told us that she dreamt that she was holding a blond haired baby boy and telling people that it was her first born's first born. A couple of months later my wife delivered a male baby with hair that turned blond.There were other instances of this phenomena in her life.

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  5. GFB:
    Yes it is quite extraordinary what can be "seen". I think the gift is underdeveloped in most, as we all have it, I believe.
    XO
    WWW

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  6. It's interesting that many of the Irish, moreso than other Celtic groups, have this mystical ability. Maybe it has been intensified because their land was relatively isolated back in the mists of time, and ancient knowledge and traits were retained, unsullied by "new blood" etc?

    Handwriting is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, more's the pity. "Reading" online communication can be useful.
    I've always thought that online we reveal a lot - from the inside out as it were. :-)

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  7. T:
    Yes ancient ways and skills have something to do with it, along with intuition which tends to be undervalued, not to mention primitive coping skills - more on that later.
    XO
    WWW

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  8. You can intuit an awful lot about someone if you look at them closely enough. So much is written in people's eyes and expressions. Sometimes I see such pain and distress in someone's eyes and I wonder what on earth happened to them to cause such agony.

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  9. Nick:
    It is usually a very sad story and some people feel letting go is insurmountable. I find the more we talk about such past horrors the more healing there is.
    XO
    WWW

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  10. That is freaky.
    But it's true, with some people there is a strange bond, an internal knowledge which has no external reason.

    Re your last comment on my blog:
    I must tell you that you are NOT the only one who disliked the image of the naked woman served, tied up, on a bed of whatever. I have since been round blogland and wherever i have made my dislike known, met with agreement.

    I am quite sorry that I actually responded to it. It's like somebody pulls a string and some of us twitch.
    I promise to be a little more circumspect in future. I am an old fashioned feminist and such images are totally degrading to women, even if they are meant to be 'art'.

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  11. Ramana:
    Definitely, though other cultures have such second sight too. I believe it lies asleep in most people!
    XO
    WWW

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  12. Friko:
    Yes I've had many such instances in my life. Immediate friends after "Hello".
    As to your blog, I was a little shocked but am so happy you reconsidered the image which was not at all in keeping with what I thought were your core values.
    XO
    WWW

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