This is a memory that came to me recently because I was a) in the library and b) discovered my niece Emma is very advanced in her reading levels.
This happened to me in the 2nd grade. I know for sure it was that year, because we had just moved to Callahan street and I was in a new school - Eastside Elementary. My teacher's name was Mrs. Hollingsworth and she was a really good teacher. She was kind and patient and completely different that Mrs. Angel, my first grade teacher, who took my advanced level of learning as some sort of affront. Mrs. Hollingsworth saw it, embraced it, and recommended me for a relatively new program called REACH.
My favorite days were library days because reading was my absolute most beloved activity. REACH kids got special library time, during which the REACH teacher and librarian would help us select appropriate books for our reading level.
It was during one of these days that I can remember experiencing my first encounter with the phenomena called Deja Vu:
I was walking along the shelves of books, looking at the spines and reading titles. There was a youngish woman, one of the library staff, walking with me and answering questions when I asked about any of the titles, or recommending when she saw me stop. Suddenly I saw a book spine that I recognized. I took it off the shelf and looked at it and was immediately overcome with the creepy, eerie, goose-pimply feeling that I had held it and read it before. The cover was dark gray and their was a mountain, a half moon, and a whole moon in outline on the upper cover.
The young woman asked me "Is this a book you would like to read?"
"No", I shook my head, "I've already read it... at least I think I have."
"You mean you looked at it, or started to read it?" Clearly she was confused, but then I was too. I remember searching for the right way to explain it too, when I remembered reading about a thing called deja vu.
So I told her what I was experiencing and that, while I had not physically read the book, I could describe it and tell her about it as if I had. I mostly remember her being shocked by the fact that I knew what deja vu was and then, I clearly remember her saying "Dear, you are too young to have deja vu!"
In the end, she quizzed me on the book, asking details about Bilbo Baggins and his adventures and eventual battle vs. Smaug. I believe she and the REACH teacher chalked it up to the fact that I had read the book before and didn't remember, or had it read to me at some point. But I knew, and still know the truth - we never owned a copy of There and Back Again (The Hobbit), until I was in the 6th grade and got a paperback copy with a cute little Bilbo on the cover; not the spooky dark gray version with the mountain, half and full moon...
Since then, I have had many other instances of Deja Vu, but never that intense and never with that much detail. I'm glad, because that was pretty creepy. Those women were a little weird around me for a few months after that, not that the adult me could blame them. Every time I got one of those logic puzzles right after that, I felt them staring at me after I started working on my papers.
So, how about you guys? Anyone out there have a crazy Deja Vu story? What do you think it is? I don't believe in past lives or any of that nonsense, but maybe it has to do with our spirit being in touch with the holy spirit and knowing what lies ahead. After all, in 6th grade I did become a little obsessed with the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for a time... maybe it's a tiny glimpse, like a shadow out of the corner of your eye. Something to ponder...
In His Blessings,
Tracy
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