About The Crow

In my life there’s a Crow, a big, black as pitch, special crow. Sometimes he’s in an oak tree, others he’s on a fence post. Sometimes he’s off doing what black crows do and other times, he’s sat on my shoulder screaming and squawking in my ear!

If you don’t know what a crow is, it’s a big black bird they get in the UK, like a raven. As you’ll read, I’m quite a grounded person and don’t subscribe to much in the way of conventional wisdom. I’m skeptical of luck and destiny and don’t really get off on the supernatural … BUT … there are things in life that we simply can’t explain.

How did this crow come into my life?

We were looking to move house and came across a property that was in the hands of the receiver. The owner had gone bankrupt and this looked like a fantastic opportunity. I tracked down the agent dealing with it and opened negotiations, looking forward to the moment we signed the deal of the decade.

I was ahead of the game, had got in before anyone else, the price was good … and things just started to fall apart!

One thing after another, inexplainable things that I’m not even going to attempt to explain!

The more we pushed, the more the deal pushed back.

My wife would often turn to me and say that “things aren’t right, this just isn’t normal”

In my heart I agreed but my head disagreed with both.

Then on the last visit, as we got out of the car, an old lady appeared at the fence from the field opposite. Cheery enough but just strange. “Hi, just wanted to say hello and see if I like you or not. If not I’ll be putting in a toilet block here in front of you” she chirped.

At that very moment my Crow appeared on an ancient oak branch right next to her head and began screaming at us. “Rarrrk, rarrk, rarrk”

That’s it! We agreed and decided it was all too much. We pulled out of the deal and forgot all about it.

A year later we passed the property again and were horrified to see what would have happened if we’d secured the house.

A retired lawyer lived some distance away and liked to ride out on the forest on his horse. He’d been studying old maps of the area and found an ancient bridleway that allowed him to access past the house to the woods beyond. He did his lawyer’s thing and got the path reopened.

It passed through the garden, under the kitchen window, through the garage and out of the garden on the other side!

I have listened to my Black Crow from that point forward.

When the Black Crow screams he’s telling me to walk away or is pushing me in a direction. My wife and I have a saying now when things go wrong for no reason we can fathom, “it’s a Black Crow”.

We learned to accept that when the ‘Crow’s a screamin’ … beware!

We’ve learned to walk away, no matter how counter intuitive it may seem.

Paul Tranter
From The Omniscience Principle