A Side-effect Of Grief? Options

[KeriTiasMom]

Disclaimer: If you do not believe in the afterlife/paranormal phenomenon/other unexplained things like these, perhaps you wouldn't want to read this...(or you might think what I'm saying is crazy). If you do believe, or are otherwise open-minded, however, please continue...

Some ppl think that if a person experiences a great tragedy and/or experiences a lot of grief, he/she will be more receptive to paranormal phenomenon or more sensitive to some things that are typically outside of the realm of human understanding (psychic phenomenon, seeing ghosts..that sort of thing). Do you agree?
I experienced a great tragedy when I was a child and I feel like it made me a lot more sensitive to any sort of spiritual phenomenon that might be going on around me (such as noticing the presences of ghosts in some of the houses I've lived in). I was always a bit intuitive by nature and had experienced some premonitions in my dreams (I mentioned this in a previous post) before I had really experienced the death of a loved one but after my first real loss I seemed to become more sensitive.

Losing my dog Tia was probably the 2nd really meaningful loss of a loved one in my lifetime and I feel like I have become bombarded by some of these unexplained
phenomenon since then (either that or I'm losing my mind...which I guess is always a possibility too ). A couple of days before Tia's death I was in my office at work and a big gust of wind swirled some leaves around in front of the window and threw something against the glass. When I stood up to look outside to see what hit the window I saw a cricket wriggling on its back on the ground. It looked like it was suffering and I had the urge to run outside and put it out of its misery..but then I had this heart-wrenching feeling, this fleeting thought...what if the cricket, whose life I was considering ending, was desperately clinging to life...what if, if it could have spoken to me, it would have said "please, don't kill me. though I am suffering I want to hold on to this last moment that I have on earth..don't take that away from me." Yes, it was quite a melodramatic thing to think about an injured cricket but it struck me that way. Then Tia died a few days later (she died in her sleep the night before we were supposed to go to the vet, that next morning, and make the decision to put her to sleep). I immediately thought of that cricket. If Tia hadnt taken the decision out of my hands, what would I have done?

These last few weeks (almost 2 months after Tia's death) I have dreamt of Tia nearly every night. Perhaps this is wishful thinking but I really feel as if she is coming to me in my dreams to be with me in whatever way she can. I feel like she still wants to be by my side but this is in the only medium through which she can reach me. Is that weird? To dream of a loved one so frequently is not typical for me...I usually dream of strangers, to tell the truth (that sounds strange too but I really do...I often dream of ppl I've never met).
The last couple of weeks I've had a few startling, perhaps paranormal, experiences. Last week I went into my closet to retrieve a jacket and once I stepped all the way inside I heard a voice very clearly say "Keri, Keri...are you there?" almost as one would respond on the phone to a dropped call. I was so startled I nearly jumped out of my skin and ran out into my room. I was the only person awake in my house and the tv wasn't on (nor was the phone off the hook). Later, that weekend, I was in the movie theater watching a scary movie (lol....how's that for atmosphere) when I heard the same voice near my ear saying "Keri, Keri...it's me." Now this one I tried to write off as my ears mangling some sounds I heard in the theater but still...after the other voice with a similar msg...I was pretty scared. I had a weird thought...what if it was Tia trying to tell me she was there..but she had a human voice...how could that happen? Perhaps it was another deceased family member...I joked with my mom that it was my deceased grandmother (on my father's side) and the end of the sentence, the part I was missing/couldn't hear, was "Keri, Keri...are you here?.... can you PLEASE take this bratty dog back? She's driving me crazy." hahaha

Last night I walked past the dining room (which has a big picture window with a rounded arched window over the top that doesn't have blinds or a curtain over it) on my way to the kitchen for a late-night snack. As I always do, I glanced upwards at the uncovered arched window to get a glimpse of the night sky. In this split second that I glanced upwards as I walked through the room I saw a brilliant large white orb shoot across the sky. Don't get me wrong...I don't think it was a UFO. I believe it was a really large shooting star. But the fact that it happened to fly across the sky at the moment I looked up...it startled me quite badly. It had the feeling of a premonition to it although I couldn't say what the premonition was. All I know is that I had a cold chill run all the way from the top of my head down my back after I saw it.

So what do you think? does loss make a person more receptive to these sorts of things? I know there's already been a thread about signs from departed pets but I'm wondering if you think losing your pet has made you more open to unexplained phenomenon....And for those who have received signs from their pets...are these the first experiences of this kind that you've had? If so, perhaps this would indeed indicate that the traumatic loss of that pet made you more open to the spirit world. Ah, but this all sounds so New Age-y.. Trust me, I'm not really a New Age type of person ...just curious about the world around me (as it is indeed more than what science explains it to be).

[booboosmom]

I and my sisters began experiencing premonitions once we reached puberty. My mother also, had this curse. For each of my sisters it is slightly different, as we are different people. We all agree' it is a very trying, difficult thing to live with. Michelles kitty, I agree with Ryancat, your not crazy. Each experience is linked to emotion. Any occurance, where my sister or I receive specific information, involves and emotional connection. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the experience, and the clearer it becomes when your mind tries to make sense of it. I have learned what the different 'feelings' mean and what certain 'warnings' take form as, in terms of information being provided. But it has taken twenty years to understand the way it works for me. You are experiencing something, based on the emotional connection you have with your furbabies. You are lucky. I cannot connect with my Boo Boo Kitty. I have received no 'information' as I normally would, with a significant life changing event. I can only conclude that my grief and guilt have cut me off from the stream of information that I can sometimes tap into. Though I have no power over when, how much, or how meaningful the information is going to be. But it would give me peace to have some thing come back to me from Boo Boo, even if it was just in a dream. I envy those of you who have had a sign, any sign from your baby. I'm still waiting.