HOLY WHISPERS

“So, do you love him?” my new friend Rachel asked.

- LOUSIA ROGERS

“You sound so casual, I kind of wondered.”

We were eating pizza in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the “him” she was referring to was my new husband, who was out of town.

I hesitated, not knowing quite what to say. It had been a rough eight months, with an enormous amount of upheaval, since we had married. In truth, I was relieved he was out of town so I could reflect on my growing doubts about our marriage. Today, 45 years later, Barry and I chuckle ruefully when people ask us the secret to our long-term marriage and we reply only half-jokingly, “Skip the first year.”

I took a bite of pizza, still not sure how to respond, when suddenly I felt a frisson of sensation, a powerful shudder that was almost a chill, across my upper back and right shoulder.

“Yes,” I said, looking straight at her.

“Yes. I do love Barry.”

That was my first awareness of the sudden, unmistakable knowledge of a Presence working in my life, letting me know in that most intimate of places: my body. It isn’t always a shiver; sometimes I experience the sacred as tears, sweat, saliva, tingling, laughing, sighing, or a touch—a rich variety of powerful physical sensations expressed through the portal of my body.

I’ve only had a few experiences like the “holy shiver” in my life, but whenever they happen, I’m always jolted awake. Here are some other times when the Divine has whispered its presence to me.

The more I put myself in situations where I welcome the Presence, the greater the likelihood that I will experience a holy whisper, a gift I will savor all my life.

HOLY HUGGING