Promise #13: Give your gut-o-meter the attention it deserves

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My youngest son’s first sentence was, “They bite.”

He was sitting in the back of a double stroller. We just started our walk when I noticed a turtle wiggling its hind legs into the mulch. I stopped the stroller and leaned down to take a very close look when Henry belted out, “Daaaaaayyyyy BITE!” He was two-and-a-half years old.

I remember standing there for a moment, trapped between the peculiarity of my baby’s first sentence and that of the turtle-monster’s ugly beak face, spiked tail and clawed feet. What was all that?

It turns out that was two very interesting things:

1. a snapping turtle preparing to lay her eggs
2. a glimpse of Henry’s budding gut instinct

Yikes. Where the heck was my gut instinct? It took me ten minutes to find a matching picture of that turtle online, yet it only took Henry ten seconds to figure out his mommy was about to lose her face.

Thankfully, I didn’t lose face that day. I have, admittedly, lost face many times by allowing my brain to override my gut. Have you done this? Muffled your gut with reasons and facts? Explanations and experiences? Errors and judgments?

It’s really silly, when you think about it. We’re all programmed with a gut-o-meter. It effortlessly runs on trust and attention. You can follow it as often as you wish without applying reason, digging for facts or formulating explanations. It’s (almost) always right. And even if it leads you astray, the experience rarely bites as much as over-exploring every avenue and then making a wrong turn.