Throughout all my grade school and high school years the only things I could think of that distinguished me in any way at all from my classmates was my 
ability to write a decent composition and to run faster than all but one other boy my age in the city of Chicago. I realized those abilities weren’t in the grand scope of life all that earth-shaking. In most other areas I was about average or a little above or a little below. I was shyer than most and much less inclined to study than most. My report cards usually said, “Needs to apply himself.”
Yet I remember that one day in the fourth grade as I was standing in line the thought came to me forcefully and abruptly that something quite possibly extraordinary was up ahead for me in my life. I was stunned. After all, I wasn’t much to speak of. So why was I being singled out like that? But BOOM, there it was, a secret promise life was making to me–a pact was being made, a deal struck, a bargain arranged between an eight year old and the life he would later lead, a waiting destiny. I knew I should keep the experience to myself and not divulge it to any living person lest they think I was crazy, or a braggart, or most reprehensible of all, that I’d gotten too big for my britches.
I managed to keep this strange experience to myself for more than thirty years, never telling a soul, but never forgetting it. By accident it popped out of my mouth one night while I was speaking to a large audience. I’d been excited. I’d been in a groove. My spoken words had gotten ahead of my thoughts. As soon as it registered on me that I’d just divulged my secret experience I felt embarrassed. I was a professional, but I’d gotten off the topic and I wasn’t supposed to do that. Who was I to think that what had happened to me would be of interest to 6,000 strangers? I wasn’t that important.
But all around the auditorium—to my left, to my right, in front of me–I could see people smiling and nodding. Some had tears in their eyes. While describing 
my hidden childhood revelation I’d been describing theirs too! The cat they too had been holding in secret was finally out of the bag, and they were relieved to find they weren’t alone. We talked into the night, men and women, some young, some older, some confident, some timid telling their story as I’d told mine, often for the first time. We were good friends now. We had a lot in common. What a night.
Since that day I’ve often described my premonition to audiences large and small to see if anything similar had ever happened to any of them. So many people confess to having had that same sudden and overwhelming sensation of being selected for something specific that’s going to happen and will benefit them and perhaps many other people too in important ways. I’ve always suspected that for every person in the audiences who has the courage to raise a hand and admit to having had the identical experience, there are others who have reservations about appearing too big for their britches or divulging such secrets.
So what I realize now is that at some point in many lives there’s an experience foreshadowing a destiny that’s waiting and calling for us. We’d been selected 
for a particularly exceptional undertaking and are being told about it—given hints and notifications that life is holding fruition in reserve, and that something worthwhile and wonderful in the swift flow of time is in store for us. It is not wishful thinking. It is not a fantasy or an empty dream, not mystical, not otherworldly, but a fact as real and as solid as any other fact. A hard and fast promise of what at last we really will become.
However modest and self-effacing you are I think you have the feeling that you are special and that you’re supposed to enjoy a life that’s also special. You know with no doubts whatsoever that you’re intended to lead a life that has meaning and to do significant things. You realize that you must hold steady to that goal, undeviating, even if you haven’t achieved it yet and don’t know exactly what it is, or when it will appear, even if from time to time you’re afraid you’ll never achieve it. When this awareness of a waiting destiny strikes you it’s an intimation of things that surely will come.
Even as a boy I knew that.
© 2016 David J. Rogers
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This was a great read David ~ why does it not surprise me that you had this experience at such a young age?
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Mary, thank you for stopping by and leaving such a warm comment. I think you are giving me a great compliment and I appreciate it, especially as it comes from you.
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Oh yes, there is sometimes a 6th sense of things to come ~ yours came at a very young age.
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Mary, do you have that sixth sense? Have you had the feeling you’re destined for something important–in your art, for example?
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Interesting you felt you had a 3th eye since your childhood,David.
Are you the kid that is in the picture?
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Hello Marilucas. Yes that’s me in the picture. Have you ever had a premonition?
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I know exactly what you mean David, because I always knew, as a child, that I was special, just like you described. I absolutely love how you finally told 6000 people your secret – and found out that it was their secret too! Fabulous! I believe that we are all special and we have a purpose that is specially crafted just for us – and our work is to go ahead and fulfil that purpose, even if we don’t know what that purpose is! Just doing the next thing, and gravitating towards joy and excitement will get us there in the end, I’m sure of it ❤️
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Sara, when I wrote “Awaken to a Waiting Destiny,” I thought of particular people I believed would respond to it. And you, of course, were on my mind. It doesn’t surprise me a bit that you thought–you knew–as a girl that you were a special human being. And look at you now–what you’ve accomplished–your rich everyday life, your children, so many loves, the help you give to people all over the globe, the destiny you’re living out with such commitment and energy.
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Well. I must say, I don’t think of my somewhat ordinary life as anywhere near fulfilling my destiny, but thank you so much for giving me a different lens with which to look at it ❤️ but what if in my ordinariness, I am already living out my destiny in ways that I don’t fully comprehend? What if we all are…?
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Sara, I’ve known you for a few years now, and I suspect your life is not as ordinary as you think. And I do like your idea of all of us living out our destinies in our everyday lives in ways we may not fully comprehend.
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Me too ❤️
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Good morning David….Like Mary, I am not in the least bit surprised that you would have had such a revelation….and I thank you for giving your us the opportunity to ‘admit’ that we might have experienced such a thing.
Yes, as I child I had several ‘strange’ experiences. I have to put this in the context of when I grew up, because like you, any kind of boastfulness….was very much frowned upon…..and being ‘normal’….was expected.
On one particular occasion, I was riding my bike down a hill close to where we lived in Kent – All of a sudden I was surrounded with the most beautiful light…..I remember a feeling of total euphoria, and to this day when I think of it, I can see it, feel it and remember it vividly. In that moment, I knew that my life would never follow a ‘normal’ path….but rather that I would follow a road very much untravelled…..and indeed it has been the case.
I have a very strong ‘sixth sense’. Had societal norms allowed me to follow my intuition and six sense, I could have saved my self a great deal of anguish. Today, I do follow my intuition and because of this experience and others, I am very clear that what we see and do in this world is purely a veneer and that beneath the surface there is the great unknown – symbolised I might add by my magical hummingbirds:)
I will add, that when I returned home and tried to tell my parents about this experience….they told me that I was simply ‘imagining things’ – however, I know I didn’t imagine anything.
Enjoy a lovely weekend. Janet. 🙂
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Janet, your epiphany surrounded by beautiful light–how lovely. I can picture that so clearly–a young girl on her bike, such a nice image. Had I told my parents of my awakening as you told yours, I think my mother would not have understood, but my father, a dreamer, would have. But I didn’t tell anyone for all those many years. Thank you for your comment. I knew without doubt, while writing the post, that you would have had an experience similar to mine. I so like your idea of a reality beneath the surface, and I think possibly a more vivid one, than the reality that’s on the surface, and your magical hummingbirds are a perfect symbol of it. Hope your weekend is wonderful too.
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