It just so happens that our tradition of vacationing in the Outer Banks coincided with Tropical Storm Debby this year. We were already in OBX when my stepmom alerted me to the storm’s path. 

The weather was warm and overcast and very comfortable when we got there. Early in the week it started raining a good bit and there was some flooding of Highway 12—normal for the area, I’m sure. I know this because I saw other people driving through the standing water with apparently little concern. (They also had larger vehicles.) 

Then Wednesday morning I got up early for my morning walk on the beach and found the entire yard, carport and road flooded. Our rental car was standing in about three inches of water. I felt unsettled. It was very windy, the ocean was quite rough, and as I walked through the flooded road on my way back to the house where we were staying, I started wondering if we should leave. The storm was projected to hit Charlotte by the next morning. If we didn’t get back before then, the potential damage there might make it harder to get home on Saturday. Or Highway 12 could become even more flooded, and our vehicle would have a hard time making it through. 

After much angst and second-guessing, I decided to leave. We arrived in Charlotte around midnight, slept through the storm, and awoke to no electricity (we got it back relatively quickly). It was a relief to be home, but at the same time I wondered if we should have left in the first place. I even checked the NC12 Facebook page and found a vacationer’s comment that they had seen worse flooding on previous trips—quite unhelpful. Finally, I had to let it go and trust the inner voice that guided my decision. 

Many of this month’s articles, which are centered on Emotional Healing, talk about accessing our sage, that intuitive power we all have that knows what to do. It isn’t something many of us understand or have developed. For me, trusting this inner voice was a start.

Wishing for you to embrace your intuition this month of fall,

Shannon