Mirror Synchronicity: Postcards to Russia

I am a member of Postcrossing. If you have never heard of it, it's a website created in order for people to share postcards with people around the world. It is great fun for anyone who likes to send and receive mail.

To understand the awesomeness of this synchronicity, you first need to know some statistics.

• There are Postcrossing members from 202 different countries
• Over 10,353,036 postcards have been exchanged
• Approximately 1,200 postcards are entered every hour
• There are 294,749 members of Postcrossing

Today, I decided to send some postcards. How it works is that you have a profile set up. You click on 'send a postcard' and then you are given a random name and address for someone somewhere in the world. You send them a postcard. When they receive it, they type in a code, and then your name and address will show up for someone else to send you a postcard. You never know what country you will be sending your postcard to, and you do not know where you will receive a postcard from. For every postcard you send, you will receive one postcard.

I was in the mood to send postcards, so one by one, I would select 'send a postcard' and then see what popped up. Addresses popped up for Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, New York and Louisiana. When I got my second Russian address, I thought it looked familiar because it was hard to spell. Then I noticed some of the preferences were similar. Then I looked at the pictures. Then I actually compared addresses and realized I had received the addresses for a husband AND a wife. If you look at the statistics again, the odds are pretty incredible.

I did not comment on the postcards itself about the synchronicity and I will be interested to see if they notice. We don't typically put return addresses on the cards, but they might notice the handwriting and the odds of receiving postcards from someone with the same name.

Directional Synchronicity: Quit the Games

I am addicted to the Smurfs Village application on my IPAD. Yes, I know, it is probably targeted towards (ahem) a younger demographic, but it's fun. I am now on level 33, so you know I have been playing it a while. Today I was in my kitchen and I went to do my morning Smurfs maintenance. I needed to harvest my pumpkins and collect my XP. But the app would not open. It crashed. I would try again. It crashed. I literally tried it more than ten times. I really was not going to give up. It worked fine yesterday, and they hadn't changed anything with the program, so I was confused as to why it wasn't working.

Then it occurred to me. Perhaps it is the universe telling me that I should be cleaning my kitchen instead of playing Smurfs?

I was waiting for a microwave repairman, and it would be nice if the kitchen were in decent shape before he got there. BUT I still kept trying to get into the program. Finally I said, "Ok, I will clean the kitchen after I play the Smurfs. I promise." It was the very next attempt when the app didn't crash and I got in... perhaps it was the 15th attempt by then. I harvested, I collected my XP and then I closed it down and fulfilled my promise to clean the kitchen.

Some people might say I read too much into things. Maybe so. It made me laugh, though.

Synchronicity in the News: Lottery Winner

Ohhh, I love lottery synchronicities. This story is simple. Man is standing in line to buy lottery ticket. Another man cuts in line. Man standing in line does not complain. Line-cutter loses. Man who did not complain WINS 300 MILLION. Is it a true synchronicity? Kismet? Serendipity? Karma? Maybe all three. Whatever it is, it is awesome!

Read the news story here

Mirror Synchronicity: Search

Someone in my circles on Google+ shared this video about how to use Google Scholar. I use it every day so I thought I might learn something new. Imagine my surprise when one of the sample searches was a search I had done before, and the speaker mentioned Brenda Dervin, a former professor of mine!

Mirror Synchronicity: Final Gifts

I was browsing the clearance section of Half Price Books (my favorite store) and I was ruminating about a book that I had loaned to someone that they never gave back. We no longer work together and it's not likely to be someone I will run into.

For most books, I loan the book with the idea that I might never see them again, which is fine. But this book, Final Gifts, was different. I only loaned it because I had full confidence that I would get it back. A year later, it turns out that I was wrong. It is non-fiction and I consider it to be the bible of books about hospice. Every presentation I give about hospice includes a mention of the book. It is a book that I always want to have on my shelf, and a book I would buy for others who are going through hospice for the first time (aside from my own).

I made a little wish that I might find it in the clearance section someday... but I never expected it to happen because it is still a best-selling book and I have never seen it on clearance. Sure enough, about a minute later, I looked up at the next shelf and I found a like-new copy for $2.00. Around the corner, I found in the regular death and dying section a used copy that was still $7.00. I bought it and thanked the universe for my gift.