The beauty of having a personal philosophy crafted together from many sources is that you can adjust it as you go along, like cosmic stretch pants. I've had to fine-tune my own belief system lately, to allow for the possibility that there are things that exist outside the realm of what I'll loosely refer to as "normal."

Case in point: nature has been making its presence known in my life lately, in unsettling and vivid ways.

On the day of a prayer call with Prayables' Blog Talk Radio Host, , and PowerPrayer, , I called in from my peaceful sunroom, where all was still and serene, until the call started. The wind started, the sky became turbulent, and the gusts moving through my sunroom's open windows were so intense that I had to strain to hear Erika praying. A group of crows landed in the yard and started squawking loudly. Then Brenda started to pray, and my dog came into the sunroom and sat down, gazing directly at me.

When the praying subsided, so did nature. All was calm again and the birds were gone. The sun was out and the sky was clear. It takes a lot to leave me speechless, but this was one such moment. Sharing what had happened with Brenda and Erika, I said, in the understatement of the day, "Something's happening."

Then last weekend, an even freakier interaction with nature occurred. I heard what sounded like heavy hail falling on the roof of my sunroom. As I looked up at the skylight, I saw that it wasn't hail, but a bunch of crows, hammering on the metal roof with a vengeance. I saw a crow on the skylight, and as he looked at me, I asked him what was going on. He responded by hitting his beak three times on the rubber rim of the skylight, actually denting it. I banged hard on the ceiling with something nearby and found that he spoke New Jersey expletive very well. One might say I gave him the bird.

Shaken by this encounter and conjuring images of the terrifying Hitchcock movie The Birds, my heart raced for a long time, and I couldn't see it as anything but an attack- some negative omen. But then two words popped into my mind and I began to think it wasn't an attack, but a way to get my attention: "Heads up." Oh yes, something's happening.

Next week, Part Two of Moving in Mysterious Ways – are these nature anomalies actually messages about how to really connect and communicate with the people in my life?

Speak to me like I don't get it, because I don't.
Parse it out for me with patience and persistence.
Here I am, ready to receive the word.
Ready to step up for the next phase.
Ready.
One thing that cannot be denied is that I've been refined
and am at the crossroads awaiting that clear calling.
You've shown me that You have dominion over all the earth,
fish, fowl, insects. Now help me receive these itinerant missives.
Say it so it's in my mind, in my heart, in my hands and feet,
and take me where my destiny awaits.

-Ruth Williams