Synchronicity

Last night I took my 3-year-old son to an Ash Wednesday service--we go to church every year on that day only.  On the way, my son was asking me about where we were going. His first thought was that he wanted to choose the color of the ashes--no gray for him.  Then he asked what the ashes meant and I couldn't really remember but I thought maybe it had something to do with the saying "from ashes to ashes, and dust to dust".  So I told him that we all die someday and turn into dust.  He got a bit upset and said, "but I love myself, I don't want to die".  Wow.  Then he wanted to know where we go when we die.  No simple heaven and hell explanation from me--I told him that it is a mystery.  Now here's an  unexpected benefit of being involved in religion--it elevates the conversation with your kids a bit.  Not that we couldn't have the conversation without religion, but I like that it was so spontaneous.  Regardless of the fact that I co...

Tonight I went to the final day of Sears going out of business sale. The roads were icy in the morning so I didn't get there until about 4 PM (with the idea that they would be closed at 5 PM--but in the end, they stayed open until pretty much everything was gone, at about 6 PM). On Friday night we had stopped and saw that they still had nice coats, a pergola, electric lawn mowers and snow throwers, etc. and I had meant to return just to get a coat. But when I arrived just before closing time I found that about all the shelves had been stripped clean, save for a bit of overstock (toilet seat covers but no coordinating rugs, pillow cases but no sheets, lamp bases but no shades, single panels of curtains in each color, some clothes, and some fine jewelry--all in all, lots of odds and ends.) I spent an hour carefully picking out a pair of pants, a package of pantyhose, and two curtain panels. I paid and was surprised at the value--it totaled something like $12. As I was wal...

Many times in the last year at work I have been in the process of taking messages from voicemail when the other line rings and it is the person (whose message I was listening to) calling back. Now, this is not all that strange (timing is natural, the person is simply trying to contact me again after a few hours). However, I have noticed that the second call usually comes in at the same time I am trying to figure out how to replay the message to get some detail I missed.  So picture this: me, sitting and staring kind of stupidly at my phone (I have never in the last year figured out how to replay a message on this voicemail software, but it doesn't stop me from trying to "remember" how to do it every time) and thinking really hard about the person whose message I've just listened to, when I'm interrupted by a call from them.  It happens so regularly that it has stopped seeming wierd.  I mean, I used to count it as a synch every time, but then I got so used to it t...

This morning, Monday January 7th, I remembered after crossing the parking ramp and starting down the stairs to head into work that I'd intended to bring a digital timer (a stopwatch, basically) which was sitting in the backseat of my car. I debated about going back during lunch vs. going back right then and decided that since I was already late I better forget about it for the time being. Once I got into the building I reached into my bag for my ID badge. Right in the front pocket was the timer I'd wanted to go back for. I must have avoided procrastination when I'd seen it in the back seat on Saturday night and stuck it in there, thinking it would be useful to have at work. The moment I saw it, I grinned from ear to ear: the memory of what had happened in the middle of the night the day before came back to me. My husband went to Walmart in Coralville, Iowa around 3 AM on Sunday January 6th (it's the closest place to get groceries on Sundays when our local grocery...

Headed to the gas station after work today. I was out of gas and had 20 miles to drive to get home, but I'm still broke and I wasn't sure if I would be have the money to pay. The gas station is right next to the hospital where I work. When I pulled up I thought I saw one of my coworkers and I briefly considered borrowing $5 from her before i realized it wasn't her. I've never had to do such a thing before and I hope I never have to. In any case, I found an old credit card and was able to use it to fill up. As I was getting back in my car to leave, the coworker I had thought I'd seen before pulled up. She mentioned that she figured she might as well take advantage of the relatively warm weather to get gas (it was still freezing and the lot was a disgusting slushy mess--I definitely wouldn't have stopped if I didn't have to.) I am curious if she would have decided to stop if I hadn't been thinking about her in a kind of desperate moment...almost...

On December 21, 2012, some predicted that the end of an era described by ancient Maya would be the end of the world. Others believed that it was only the beginning of a new era of greater spiritual understanding, while some believed that nothing out of the ordinary would happen. I watched a couple of documentaries about the predictions and read a few articles saying that the Maya prophecies were blown out of proportion and had little relation to the actual beliefs of the ancient Maya. I didn't expect much change on December 21, but I did allow myself to imagine that perhaps my own spiritual awakening was related to or brought about by this wider cultural shift which many were fantasizing about. And I don't blame people for fantasizing, because who doesn't want a spiritual awakening that brings about an end to violence and hate in the world?  There is an  interesting (but not very well-written) article on the NASA website  which debunks many of the myths and ideas about...

Last year about this time I was decorating the Christmas tree with my husband & son.  We decided that the lights with green wire blended into the tree much better, but we only had one set of them, so my son & I headed out to purchase a string of lights.  I was trying to decide the best store to go--Walmart was closest, and as I passed it I thought to myself: "that was dumb, why am I going all the way to Lowe's?"  And I answered myself, "it's OK, you'll probably run into someone you know there."  Even though my hair & clothes reflected a long day spent at a tree farm, I wouldn't mind running into a friend.   When we got to Lowe's I saw my friend/co-worker Mike heading into the store right in front of me.  So I caught up with him and we discovered that we were both there for the same reason--to buy one string of lights.           It was so weird that we both showed up at the same time to buy the same thing from the same ...