The Coleman Trial Sheds Light on Our Inner Voice

I don't think anyone was surprised about the outcome of the Chris Coleman trial. The writing was on the wall, so to speak. But  I am surprised at some of the details that have emerged from the trial and the light it has shed on Sherri Coleman. Really, a light that we all can learn from, if we choose.

I've read that Sherri Coleman texted and confided in her friends that, among other things, she was afraid of Chris Coleman, that she felt in the way of his plans, that if anything happened to her, "Chris did it." Chris Coleman apparently had been abusive in other ways before. The family was receiving threatening messages from someone, that we now know, was Chris Coleman.

So what can we learn from this?   

This tragedy proves (again), that we, as human animals, still have an instinct, or an Inner Voice—

She knew.  

Her inner voice told her.

She had been feeling that "uh-oh" feeling. 

She had conveyed what the Inner Voice was telling her, to her friends.

You all know what I'm talking about, right? The Inner Voice is that sensory-like voice inside your head that you hear or feel when an "odd" stranger approaches your children, or you come home and the door is unlocked, or even, that you are in the wrong job, relationship or situation. I've heard some describe it as the "prickles." We all have an Inner Voice.

Why don't we trust and act upon the Inner Voice?  

Perhaps, I have stopped listening because the door was actually unlocked because I forgot to lock it—meaning maybe the voice was unwarranted or wrong for any given situation. The Inner Voice was "overreacting."  

Another theory, is that we have been raised and continue to raise girls to put the Inner Voice aside. We, as young girls, are taught to be nice, polite, to not offend—and then continue the niceties on into womanhood. We don't want to offend anyone by, say, crossing the street or not offering a smile or a "hello" to a stranger, or, to the extreme—protecting ourselves in an abusive relationship. Thus, the Inner Voice, innate in us, becomes so faint that we don't trust it. We've been raised not to rely on it, so when we hear the Inner Voice, as women, we can't be sure, we can't act, we don't listen.  

Clearly, there may be other reasons that Sherri Coleman didn't listen and act upon her Inner Voice. Perhaps, she was talked out of it by faith, friends, family, or herself, that she (or the inner voice) was overreacting, etc. We won't ever know.

As I think about Sherri Coleman and her beautiful boys (and all the other women in our country who have heard the Inner Voice, but to their detriment, didn't listen or trust it), I am choosing to reconnect with my Inner Voice and trust it. As for my girls, let the unpleasantries begin.