No, not a mouse, but the rare and famous bald-tailed squirrel… and thereby hangs another tale…
“What was that?” My son stuck his head through the kitchen door as I squealed, taking in the scene. The open door of the washing machine… the blue work-out pants dangling from my hand… the dead mouse at my feet… His eyes widened, with a flicker of unease, entirely out of proportion to the presence of the small corpse, and a hint of suspicion, as if he did not want to hear the answer to his question. “Where did that come from?”
“Out of your track-suit bottoms…”
“You’re joking…”
“God’s honest truth…” Our eyes met in mute comprehension as we both replayed the events of the previous morning. I was taking his morning coffee through to the bedroom, and, seeing his work out-trousers in the hallway, I shouted through to ask if they were for the laundry and “…there’s not a dead mouse in them or anything?”
“Er…no. That’s a bit of a random question! Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know.” And I didn’t. Thinking about it, though, and given the propensity of the resident feline huntress for bringing in birds, I didn’t think it was too unreasonable. He could have covered a corpse and left it for me to dispose of. Why a mouse, though? I had no idea. I picked up the trousers and deposited them in the washing machine to await a full load. It was not until the next morning, when I was pulling things out again, that the mouse dropped out of them, curled cold at my feet.
“That,” said my son, “is seriously weird.”
It might just have been a bit weird, but he had already told me to get out of his head several times that morning. Again. It is a daily thing. I am not alone, though, in second-guessing sons or being able to predict what they are about to say, or knowing what song they are playing in their heads. Mums can do that. He and his brother have the same kind of rapport, but take it to a whole new level of randomness. It was only ‘seriously’ weird because it was such an odd occurrence and had nothing to do with how well I know him or not. He doesn’t usually keep dead mice in his trousers.
It started one of ‘those’ discussions again. We dismissed the idea of a possible glimpse of tail beneath the trousers in the hall. If I’d have been able to see a tail at all, the mouse would have fallen out of the trousers, or been visible when I gingerly picked up the soggy article to carry it to the kitchen. So how did I ‘know’ to ask if there was a dead mouse in there?
Myself, I think there is a perfectly natural explanation, but one that goes a little outside what we generally class as normality. I think it also goes some way to explain why mothers have that almost uncanny, and often wholly inconvenient, knack of reading their children’s minds. You could call it ESP… extra sensory perception, but with the emphasis on the ‘extra’.
We are all aware of the five physical senses and understand their scope and limitations…or we think we do. They are the mechanical means by which we gather information about our world. Their parameters have been measured and are understood, at least within the limits of current knowledge. A number of ‘non-traditional senses’ are now widely recognised, including balance, proprioception and the ability to sense time, choice and familiarity, bringing the number of physical senses up into double figures. Buddhism also includes mind as a sensory organ and it is through these extended physical senses that I feel many ‘seriously weird’ things may be explained.
I believe the physical senses, including mind, can work together in ways we are yet to fully comprehend. The minute observations we can make through our physical interaction with the world, coupled with the knowledge and familiarity of a person or situation that we bring to any given moment, may allow us to ‘read’ that moment in ways that appear ‘super-natural’. Which explains that annoying knack mothers may have where their children are concerned…and might go a long way to explaining some part of those phenomena often seen as ‘seriously weird’, like telepathy of some aspects of psychism. Or perhaps they too are simply extended senses.
Unlikely as it seems on the surface, perhaps there was a smell of mouse, too faint to notice consciously, but which registered in my mind. Perhaps there was a subliminal odour of death. Perhaps, too, there are other senses of which we are as yet unaware… we seem to be adding to the list all the time. Maybe it is in this uncharted realm of sensory perception that we will find what allows us to tell the difference at a glance between sleep and death. It is not simply a matter of whether a subject is breathing or not. Newly dead creatures may still move as their bodies settle… but you can see when life has left.
These extended, ‘extra’ senses are part of who we are. They may once have been commonly relied upon for survival, but maybe we have lost our awareness of them as the dangers of a wild world have receded. It doesn’t mean they have ceased to exists or be of value. In our search for knowledge and answers, we have classified the senses we could pinpoint and measure. It is only in recent years that the five traditional senses have had others added to their number.
It makes me wonder just how much more we are capable of than we realise… and how much really paying attention might reveal, both about our world and ourselves.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
How truly strange!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was an odd moment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Most definitely “seriously weird!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
We thought so…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow kicking that ESP up a notch, would have been better if it was say money in the pants though!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I don’t think that would make me squeal 😉 Sons…I have found strange things in pockets at laundry time over the years… 😉
LikeLike
I have too with two sons it became somewhat daunting to clean pockets, so I always asked if they left money in their pockets saying if so I would keep it . It encouraged them to check their pockets and clean them out before the pants went into the hamper.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, it’s weird, I wonder how it happened!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No idea…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Humm…😅♥
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have found myself saying this a lot lately…’I don’t know, it just is’….you just sensed it Sue…. ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is the nature and extent of those senses that intrigues me, Jane.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had an impulse/sense to enter a competition for a lipstick, the kind my Mum has been after for ages. I was guided to it and tonight I learned that I had won. My Mum will be delighted. When I am ‘still’ enough I can feel/hear my sixth sense. I have also seen and heard spirit since I was a child and I work as a medium and emotional energy therapist. Living in this physical world, as we all do, I sometimes find life is just too noisy for me to hear my sixth sense. We all have this sixth sense and it runs through us in different ways. Hugs for you Sue. Xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with you, Jane, the white noise of everyday life drowns out much that we should otherwise see, hear and feel.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oooooh this was a goodie. I would have loved it even without the intro about the mouse. I am on a quest to awaken ALL of my ways of being aware – *especially* the seriously weird ones. Good to know I’m not alone there.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Most of my best friends are wonderfully weird 😉 xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
My acting buds are as well – and the ADDers, of course. But we all seem to have “that one friend” who grew up normal (poor thing!)
xx,
mgh
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m not sure I have 😉 xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lucky lady!
xx, mgh
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi, I am Anne, and I am a student of The Silent Eye. I am curious to know what all of your letters mean, and I hope you won’t feel offended and let me know and also what adventure you are doing. It sounds so interesting, and I always want to learn new things. Thank you very kindly, I look forward to hearing from you. Anne
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I probably confused everyone. That message above was intended for Madelyn Griffith-Haynie. We have ADD that I am familiar with and that is a developmental issue with children who are hyper. But I don’t know what the MCC and the SCAC are. Thank you kindly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can find out more about Madelyn on her website, Anne.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Sue. I am going to look her up. So many fascinating people on these posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Strange how you seemed to know. I have found some weird things in my son’s pockets over the years, but they were always a complete surprise! Makes me wonder how many other things we would notice, if we weren’t always preoccupied with other things…
LikeLike
That is precisely what I was wondering, Jaye… so many things we simply do not see, even though we could…
(They do carry some strange things in their pockets… Mind you, my handbag is no better…)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Odd indeed. A touch of reverse deja vu perhaps?
LikeLike
Whatever it was, I’d love to hone it 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow Sue, seriously weird indeed!
LikeLike
In the context of the rest of the morning, Paul it was even weirder…but the other stuff doesn’t really tell very well.
LikeLike
OMG. What a story? It makes you think and wonderful what other things in life we overlook because we are simply moving past the moment.
LikeLike
I agree, Joyce…and that awareness is something we work to enhance.
LikeLike
Weird indeed! But how did the mouse get into Nick’s jogging bottoms? Had the cat buried it for later consumption?
LikeLike
I have no idea, Mary… but she does seem a little miffed with him for spending a night away 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Definitely a weird coincidence. So did the ‘clean’ mouse get a burial and did the clothes get another wash? ;D
LikeLike
Thankfully, I sort the laundry before putting the machine on, so the mouse remained unlaundered. I dread to think what the mess would have been if I hadn’t…
LikeLiked by 2 people
Heh, that was my thought too … it would’ve given a whole new meaning to ‘buried at sea’. 🙂
LikeLike
I dread to think if I hadn’t….
LikeLiked by 1 person
My son really hates when I do that, but my husband hates it even more. I’m sure we do have some mind control stuff with people with whom we live very closely. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were a bit more controllable … more practical?
LikeLike
Oh imagine the uses! As long as we learned the morality that has to go with it… not controlling others…
LikeLike
A strange occurrence! I’m not surprised though as my mother and I could often know what the other was thinking and my sons truly thought I had eyes on the back of my head. It is definitely a connection between mother and child.
LikeLike
Yes, it does seem strongest with a parental bond.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, what a story Sue. ESP, mother’s intuition call it what you may, it’s a gift. But the mouse thing, I might have had heart failure whether I sensed it or not, but saw it, lol. 🙂 xx
LikeLike
I’ve had far worse than mice to deal with…. the escaping fishing maggots may have been the worst though… doesn’t bear thinking about 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are a true warrior woman, lol. 🙂 xx
LikeLike
Just a mother of sons…which probably needs us to be the same thing 😉 xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
An interesting example, Sue. I remember many times being busted by Mom, either before or as I did something I wasn’t supposed to be doing.
There are references that we only use a tiny portion of our brains, so there are so many things we either miss or overlook by concentrating on the physical planes. I think the times when ESP and other occurrences happen are when we “accidentally” link into those areas.
I have found in many cases, I can intuitively know what someone is about to say or do even if they aren’t related to me. I guess you could say I’m “seriously weird.” 😀
LikeLike
I think you are right, John… the mind has capacities we barely know and can join the dots in convoluted ways to allow us to see far more than we usually see. I don’t think there is anything ‘unnatural’ about it… the weirdness is simply an unusual application of natural abilities.
LikeLiked by 1 person