God(dess) is with me story: what protects me in this fight


Have had many reasons to be thinking about this story, which happened 22 years ago March 18. Listening to my inner voice telling me when something is not quite right and I need to take protective action...this is what is keeping me safe and sane.

Thought I’d share this with everyone so you can understand the source of my strength and courage.

One thing I came to understand a couple decades ago when keeping my wits about me averted a potential rape (my own) is that I’d rather be a live fool than a dead one.

And I have to trust that inner voice and the spirit that protects me.

It was March 18, 1984 (I know precisely because it’s in my journal!). Almost 22 years ago exactly.

I was walking late at night in Iowa City, where I’d just moved to go to graduate school...from a suburb in So. Calif. where you just didn’t walk late at night. I love the night, and I was all into the idea of Iowa City being basically corn-fed farmkids going to college. Which actually is mostly true, except those corn-fed farmkids can be criminals too, as it suddenly dawned on me...

I noticed a suspicious car with someone in it smoking a cigarette a few blocks away, up a hill. Earlier this car had driven by me as I was walking and slowed down, then sped up to go around the hill & come back. So I’m thinking, OMG, what do I do? Continued a little ways up then, thinking I didn’t want to make a fool of myself by waking up some sleepy resident (it was after 1 a.m.!). That's when I decided I'd rather be a live fool than a dead one. I didn’t want to have whoever was in that car behind me instead of in front, and so went to bang on a house door.

Several minutes of knocking. I’m shouting, I need help! Thinking, OMG what if nobody is home! Finally a man opens the door. Before that I’m thinking, I really don’t know what’s on the other side of this door either. But this guy is shorter than I (so REALLY short for a guy), and I am wearing heavy-duty hiking boots that saw me through a couple of 8-day Sierra Nevada backpacking trips with 12,000 foot passes. Good swift kick... Then I see the playpen in the living room, and the wife comes out, so sigh of relief.

Called the police. Car drove off eventually, before the police arrived, but I was on the phone describing everything I saw and so they were able to find and stop the car. Turned out there were two men, one of whom had a rape arrest record, but no prosecution because the woman dropped the charges.

Earlier that night while I was walking...going through a lovely park with a creek...I suddenly had a strong intuitive sense of danger. This was some time before I saw the car the first time. Wind came up sudden and loud, felt like some kind of message to me, and I knew something was wrong and I had to get home fast.

Officer who drove me home after said they couldn’t arrest these guys because they hadn’t broken the law. Well, I knew that. I said, “I didn’t want to give them anything to be arrested for!”

I’m not going to give them anything to be arrested for (except their dealing, which has nothing to do with me).

Lately I’ve been feeling a strong connection to the energy of the universe that saved me that night. It flows through me and radiates around me. Despite all I’ve been through in the last several days, I am sitting here smiling.



Posted: Wed - April 19, 2006 at 04:42 PM          

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