Dreaming: The Statue of Liberty

This is funny. I've been keeping a dream journal, which I would highly recommend. I find that if I don't write it down within 5 minutes of waking then I'll forget about it. Anyways I had a dream about the statue of liberty. I was standing in front of it just looking at it. The next day my husband suggested we go to Red Robin for lunch. We had not been there in over a year. I walked in the front door and there is a 8 foot statue of liberty by the hostess stand. It was such a weird feeling - like right away I remembered that I had dreamed about it. Even if I were psychic, how useless would that be to know where I was going to have lunch?

Mirror Coincidence: Nail Kit

Apparently my 'emergency nail kit' gift to my mother in law came just in time after she had been asking everyone for a nail file to smooth out a nail. She seemed to think it was quite a coincidence, so here it is.

(Hey I promised to record all coincidences - no matter how small!)

Directional Synchronicity: The woman I wanted to meet

I was at a client dinner with 28 people and there was a woman there who I wanted to meet. I couldn't think of how to introduce myself. The seating was long banquet tables and when I got there early I had put my coat down to reserve a spot. When cocktail hour was over and I looked over to my seat, the woman I had been hoping to meet had chosen the chair right next to the one I had reserved. It turned out we had an unbelievable amount in common and we had a great dinner, chatting all night!

Mirror Synchronicity: Double Rainbow

My husband and I were on vacation in Puerto Rico when we saw the most vivid rainbow following a morning shower. I remarked that my mom once saw a double rainbow in the early 70's and she talked about it for years. Minutes later, the second rainbow appeared and I really felt that it was a gift from her. Seeing a double rainbow is a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. I was happy to have my camera though!

Mirror Coincidence: Ruby Slippers

I am working on a speech for my toastmasters club and I asked my husband for a title. He happened to be looking for his red shoes - so he gave me the title 'Ruby Slippers'. So I'm sitting in a meeting today where they're talking about a lipstick color - sure enough - it's called Red Ruby slippers. Just weird. Insignificant. But still weird.

Mirror Coincidence: Yoko Ono

What is it with Yoko Ono? I saw her name referenced on two different tv shows (ignored it). Then there was an article about the top magazine covers... some pic of her and john Lennon (rolling stone?) was named as the top cover. Then I heard on the radio today that she's selling some envelope on which John Lennon scribbled "Give peace a chance" for $250,000. I'm trying to ignore these. Why the sudden interest in her? Why is everyone talking about her?

Mirror Coincidence: Random Websites

Sometimes when I don't know what to write about or I'm feeling restless, I'll just randomly search for synchronicity to see what others are saying about it. Tonight the first website I came to had wedding pictures for a couple with the same first names as my husband and I. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

When you look for "meaning", you find it. That doesn't mean that it means anything.

There's an old Friends episode where Phoebe is trying to find commonalities with her birth mom and she says, "You like pizza? I like pizza too!!"

Is anyone out there?

Mirror Coincidence: A Special Prayer

I received one of those silly emails that tells you to forward to all of your friends.

This morning when the Lord opened a window to Heaven, he saw me, and he asked: My child, what is your greatest wish for today? I responded: "Lord please, take care of the person who is reading this message, their family and their special friends. They deserve it and I love them very much". The love of God is like the ocean, you can see itsbeginnings, but not its end. This message works on the day you receive it. To some it may sound dumb, but the person who sent this to me was impressed with the time. Let us see if it is true. ANGELS EXIST, but sometimes, since they don't all have wings, we call them FRIENDS, SUCH AS YOU. Pass this on to your true friends. SOMETHING GOOD WILL HAPPEN TO YOU TODAY. SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING TO HEAR. THIS IS NOT A JOKE; SOMEONE WILL CALL YOU BY PHONE OR WILL SPEAK TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU WERE WAITING TO HEAR. DO NOT BREAK THIS CHAIN. SEND IT TO A MINIMUM OF 7 PEOPLE.

25 minutes later, I got an email from our human resources department announcing the winning raffle numbers for our United Way drawing. Sure enough, I had won a $150 Ticketmaster gift certificate. Coincidence? Maybe. But it was still pretty cool. Note that the email does not say you have to forward the email in order to have something good happen.

Directional Synchronicity: Karma

At work we have an intranet with classified ads. My husband found a 'free cat' ad and the cat's name was Karma - my favorite sign. The person who was giving it away is someone that I only talk to once every 6 months, yet I had just interacted with him days before I saw the ad. We adopted Karma and yesterday she peed on the floor and today she scratched my face. So for right now she is "Bad Karma". If you've seen my other posts, you may remember that this is my second syncronicity encounter with getting a cat.

Picture to come later, once I coax her out from behind the couch.

Dreaming: "Star Signs"

So for the past two days I've woken up with a phrase in my head. I can't remember yesterday's, so I made sure to make a note of today's. "star signs". Not sure what it means yet. Any suggestions?

Mirror Coincidence: Thinking of You

Now these happen all the time, but I still think they're neat...

I was at a conference in Chicago and I met a mutual acquaintance of a friend of mine who had moved away. I hadn't thought about her in months, but running into someone that I knew she knew made me think of her and I decided to write her a postcard. As it turned out, when I checked my messages at home, she had called me that same day.

I ran into the ex boyfriend of one of my good friends. They were two young and it just didn't work out at the time, but they've both been fond of each other. He told me to say hi to her and when I told her she remarked that for some reason she had just been thinking about him recently.

Signs: Can you spare a dime?

As told to me by my friend Amy:
"On the 4th of July I saw my cousin who I hadn't seen in while. Her dad, my uncle died last year. Now there's something you need to know about my uncle. He was obsessed with money. He was always picking up spare change. My cousin said in the year after he died, she finds dimes everywhere. Not pennies (those would've been insignificant for him) and not nickels or quarters. She has a jar where she keeps them all. I came into work, and I found this random dime on my office floor. Could be nothing... but it was weird."

Not one hour after Amy told me this story, I found a single dime in my sweater pocket. Now I bet after reading this - you'll find dimes too. Is it a 'sign'? Who knows. If it stops and makes you remember someone - isn't that all that matters anyway?

Mirror Coincidence: hiccup!

So maybe this isn't meaningful, but funny when it happened all the same...

I was reading a trivia book and got the hiccups, not two hiccups later, I turn the page to find an article about hiccups.

Mirror versus Directional Synchronicity

Some of you may be wondering what I mean by mirror or directional synchronicities. I'm still learning myself, but this is what I've gathered:

A mirror synchronicity is a meaningful coincidence where something happens to mirror what you have recently been thinking about, or mirror something else that has happened at the same time. The two seemingly seperate acts or thoughts reflect each other. These examples are plentiful, as you can see in my other posts.

Directional Synchronicity is a coincidence in which it seems that nature is guiding you one way. "A sign from above", so to speak. One of my favorite movies about this is Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.

Mirror Coincidence: The windows are locked

This one was contributed by my friend Dawn:

During my time off from work, I've been reading Stephen King's Salem's Lot. Good book by the way. Anyway, I took my car into the dealership this morning for some work and they have a picnic table outside under some trees and it was a beautiful morning, so I sat out there and read while I waited. I got to a part in the book where one of the characters was telling another to lock the windows. Just as I read that line, a man walked by and called to someone in the garage "the windows are locked".

Mirror Coincidence: Hudson Hotel

I was in New York last week and heard from three different acquaintances how cool the Hudson hotel is. Never mind that there is absolutely no space and that it costs more than more spacious hotels, these people couldn't stop raving. I dunno - I'm not the type to pay for "Hip" but apparently some are. http://www.hudsonhotel.com/hudson_hotel_rooms.html

Mirror Coincidence: Playboy Mansion

Ok this is completely stupid, but I've made the pact to document all the coincidences I experience. I am NOT saying there is any meaning to this (and I would certainly hate to think that there was...). On HBO, the latest Entourage episode, "Aquamansion" featured the posse going to a party at the playboy mansion. A couple of days later, I was watching American Casino and the episode titled (go figure) "Playboy Mansion" features the 'character' Wayne attending a pajama party at the mansion and diving into the grotto. As an aside, if anyone knows David - my friends and I would like to visit JC1K when we come into town.

Mirror Coincidence: Montessori Schools

Reconnected with an old friend a couple of weeks ago and he told me that he had enrolled his 3 year old daughter in the local montessori school. I had never heard of montessori, but as he puts it, it teaches children to be self-directed. Today, I had lunch with a co-worker whom I hadn't seen in a while and he told me that they had just fired the nanny and enrolled their 8 month old in a montessori program. I had never heard of this before and now, twice in two weeks, people have brought up the educational philosophy with me. How strange. If you want to learn more about it yourself, this seems to be a good site: http://www.montessori.org/

The life of a cat: my next life?

My father and I saw a pet psychic speak at our local psychic fair. She wasn't 'the' pet psychic, but she did seem like she was legit. She spoke about animals and humans cross-reincarnating. It's an interesting thought. I read an story in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology about a woman who made eye contact with her cat and then they switched souls. Unfortunately for the cat, the woman had just killed her husband. It was very strange. I didn't look at my cats straight in the eye for a while after that.

Directional Synchronicity: Daisy the cat

It was a brisk fall evening. My husband and I were finishing up dinner and we started talking about my cat, Kitty. I'd had Kitty for 12 years and she really doesn't like anyone else but me. My husband was getting tired of being hissed at, so he conceeded that perhaps we could get another cat that would like him. We went outside for a smoke and just then a small calico came running across the street towards us. We had never seen her before, but she was quite friendly. She rubbed up against our legs and even let us pick her up. Because it was cold outside, we decided to take her in. The next week I asked around the neighborhood and found that she was a stray. She is the sweetest, cutest cat I've ever known. We named her Daisy.

The moment she died Part II

Four months after I lost my great aunt (who was essentially a grandmother), I had to admit my mom to hospice. She had been ill for a long time, and her health was declining rapidly. One day, I got the phone call. They said my mom was nearing the end. She lives in the same city, so it was a short trip to her facility. She looked horrible. If you have never seen a person who is dying, you can't imagine it. It's not as pretty as the movies. There is a definite physical change that takes place towards end of life. I'll spare you the details.

Anyways, this is hard to write about, so I'll be brief. I did bedside vigil for 3 full days. I even stayed overnight in an awful recliner and was awoken every two hours by the nurse who was checking on my mom. My mom was still hanging in there. I finally decided to go home and sleep in my own bed. The next day when I got back to the facility I knew something was wrong. The aids were sitting in the hallway looking at me mournfully. My mom had just passed.

Now here's the thing. The nurse told me that in the morning she was healthier than she had been the past few days, and then suddenly she took a turn for the worse and died. She died in the 15 minutes between the time I left my house and when I got there. I know in my heart that she chose to go at that time because she did not want me to be in the room when she passed. Still, it hurt. Bad. If you're lucky enough to still have your mom - please tell her you love her.

The moment she died

My great aunt Alice was a pretty healthy 87 years old. Then I got the call. She had a brain aneurysm and went into a coma. When I went to visit her, she wasn’t well. Her breathing was labored and we knew it was close to the end. Her brother, sister and a couple of cousins of mine were there. The hospital told us that there was nothing that we could do and they suggested hospice.

In hospice the nurse told us that we should still talk to her. My great uncle couldn’t believe it, but he tried. He told her he loved her and that he would miss her. Still, she was hanging on. Why? We asked. The hospice nurse said sometimes the patient is waiting for someone. Who could she be waiting on? We were all there. My one cousin determined it was his dog P.J. and he decided to go get the dog. I didn’t think that was it – I’m sure my great Aunt would be appalled at the thought of a dog in the hospital.

I was holding her hand and talking to my cousin while we watched her slowly breath in and out. Then we heard a voice. A woman came in the room and said in a soft voice, “Hi. I’m Norma. I’m Alice’s minister.” She then walked over to the bed to check on her. It was at that very moment that my great aunt stopped breathing. The minister said, “I think she is gone” and started praying for her. The rest of us all looked around at each other, for we realized that since none of us are religious, we had forgotten to call the minister. That’s whom she was waiting for.

Required Reading: The Power of Karma

I only say required reading for my very favorite books. I have no association with the author or the publisher. As you might have noticed from my blogging, I appreciate a straightforward communication style. In The Power of Karma, Mary T. Browne explains the concept of karma in a straightforward way. She's a little bossy at times - "write this down" but she means well and I actually enjoy the lecture. One point that hit home was that negative thoughts can be just as harmful as negative actions. She suggests that you repeat the word, "Harmony" over and over to try and get the negative thoughts out of your mind. I like that. Harmony. It seems to work. Read this book and tell me what you think.

Why am I a new soul?

Sure this blog is about coincidence, but it's also about a spiritual connection to the universe at large. I mean it's all connected. Here's a little about myself. I've been to more funerals than weddings. My grandmother read palms as a hobby and also practiced astrology. Unfortunately, she passed when I was 10. I thought for sure, if anyone would come to visit me from the other side it would be her. Nothing. No signs. In the past 20 years I have lost countless relatives that I was close to. I tried to count and it was something like 14 at last count. All my grandparents have passed on, as well as multiple aunts and uncles and most recently my mother. I meditate. I burn incense. I stay quiet for periods of time. I consider myself a pretty 'open' person. But for some reason, I have never even got a tap on the shoulder or the movement out of the corner of my eye. I believe that our guides are with us, and I've been told by sensitive people that it's sometimes subtle, but just once I would like that shout out to let me know that they're ok.
Unless... I am not supposed to have contact. Perhaps I am supposed to fend for myself. It would be nice, though, to know I wasn't alone.

Required Reading: There Are No Accidents

I love the concept of synchronicity. The premise is simple: it's a coincidence. Does it mean something? Not always. Sometimes it does. I like There Are No Accidents: Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives by Richard Hopke because it's straightforward but still interesting. He gives many examples of coincidences and introduces the reader to Carl Jung, the psychologist, but it's not too complex. I found it at the library (wasn't looking for it...) but then I ended up buying it because I found that I wanted to read it again and again. Check it out and let me know what you think. It is the BEST book on synchronicity that I have found.

Welcome

You've found me. We were meant to connect. I believe that everything that happens to you and to me is part of our karma and part of our destiny. I'm still trying to figure it all out. This is my attempt to reach out to the big world and try to make sense of it all. Or at least live with it not making sense. My karmic destiny (according to the astrology.com website) is to learn to live with uncertainty. yikes. What's yours? Let's explore together.