Ever had an experience that — in retrospect — turned out to have been a really close call with something really bad... and something "unexplainable" somehow saved you from disaster?
It has happened to me more than once, and each time I have come away with the sensation that there is more between heaven and earth than we currently know, at our stage of human development.
While such things are definitely baffling, I'm not really interested in labeling them as "God" or "guardian angels" or "supernatural forces." I believe it is simply part of human nature to label the unknown (and possibly unknowable) in a way that doesn't violate our "reality threshold" by too much.
Sometime around 1997 I was spending the day visiting a friend in San Antonio (I was living in Austin at the time) and on my way home I stopped off at a favorite haunt just off Broadway, just north of downtown.
For lack of a better term, it was a "junk shop" that used to be an old-fashioned printery, with a lot of printshop paraphernalia still in the building.
At the time, it was a slightly sketchy area — although not outright dangerous — but during the day pretty pretty well trafficked with visitors. I felt lucky to find a parking spot right around the corner, near the side entrance.
I spent a good 45 minutes looking around, contemplating several things I absolutely didn't need, other patrons poking around with similar intentions, in that aimless way weekend visitors with no schedules and no plans typically have.
All of a sudden, I felt quite cold — in spite of it probably being 85 degrees inside — and felt super uneasy.
I tried to shake it off... until there was something like a whisper, in my head? From another part of the building? From a ghost? That basically said "Leave! Now!" in a sharp and commanding tone.
It was weird and intense enough that I set down the couple of items I was going to purchase and exited the building post haste and drove away, wondering what the heck I'd just experienced. I was really not into the supernatural or ghosts or anything like it back then... but the experience really creeped me out.
I drove back to Austin and went about my day, and went to work the next day.
One of my coworkers was from San Antonio and still had a subscription to the San Antonio Express-News, which she often brought to work. It was laying on the break room table and I noticed a smaller sidebar article... "Broadway merchant shot and killed in robbery."
The elderly proprietor of the junk shop where I had my weird experience had been killed in a robbery gone bad, literally minutes after I was "urged" to leave the store.
It's one of those life experiences I will never forget. It's also one I can't explain, but I consider it as a small bit of evidence for the possibility that there are thing all around us we just don't understand... yet.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!
Comments, feedback and other engagement is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
Proud member of the Silver Bloggers Community on Hive!
As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — not posted anywhere else.
2026.08.06 01:42 PDT
1613/2881
