Random Coincidences

I've been having kind of a weird couple of weeks in the midst of an even stranger year known as 2010.  For starters, I've been in a very cantankerous mood.  We female B's get like that when our hormones begin to fluctuate.  So, perimenopause or whatever these mood swings accompanied by fatigue, body aches, too many chin hairs, thinning head hair, and hot/cold sweats are, there have been more than a few random happenings in my environment lately.  One could call it synchronicity or just plain mental craziness, but I really think that perhaps I should start documenting them.  You know, just for kicks. 

For instance, I was trying to walk out of one of my accounts and had to change my intended direction due to several customers that were trying to get through on the right side of the entryway.  If it hadn't have been for that change in direction, I wouldn't have literally almost bumped into the parked car with a tag of, you guessed it, California.  Keep in mind that just before I walked out the door I started thinking that my job wasn't too bad after all and that I might be able to hang with it if I adjusted my attitude a little.  Or the fact that I'm driving down I-25 thinking, ok, if I see two of them pass me on the way back that means I should quit my chip gig early so I can focus on finishing my MBA thesis class and the next stage of my "reinvention project."  Yep, I see at least two....and only two. 

Thursday morning I drive into one of my dive stores (and by "dive" I mean bars on the windows, "bad" Longmont neighborhood, etc.) and think it sure would be nice if V (the store clerk) was handing out free burritos today.  Guess what? He did and I didn't have to buy myself lunch. On Friday the owner of one of my 7-11's stops me and says, "so J tells me you're going to go study to be a writer."  I tell him, well maybe, it all depends on a little thing called "acceptance."  He blurts out, "well you certainly have gotten enough material from here to write a full manuscript."  I tell him "oh, it's not just here.  I have more than enough from this entire route."  He replies back "I bet," with a hint of a smirk in his eyes.  I'd love to get started on all the stories I've heard come out of many, many beloved mouths, but that would kind of spoil the suspense of reading those "manuscripts."

My lovely new found artsy friend from one of my Valero stores in Lyons blurts out the other day, "so when are you going to U of "X."  Her son just happens to be a current student there and she just happens to have lived all over the state.  Funny, because she knows I'm considering two other schools.  It's funny that I haven't told her that U of "X" still ranks as my first choice (if there is a choice) in the back of my mind.  I tell her it all depends on that little thing called "acceptance."  She says "oh, but you're a good writer.  And downtown is one of the best places to study how to become one because of the scenery."

And yesterday I was so tired and depressed while I was driving home on highway 34 (because of the fluctuating hormones), thinking to myself that I can't possibly do this.  I can't change.  I can't follow the wishes of my 17 year old self, that chance is gone.  Look what happened to that 23 year old who took a leap of faith-she ended up back home-broke and having to start again from scratch.  This place is secure, it's safe, things always work out because they stay put and there's a safety net.  I have a good job.  I make good money, I don't have to worry about it and I really don't feel like I want to put myself in a position where I have to again.  Then I think, ok show me some kind of impossible sign, perhaps a car with a tag of that state driving by on the other side of the road.  In the middle of Greeley, Colorado what are the odds?  Almost next to impossible.  So, I'm parked at the signal light at an intersection waiting for the left turn signal to turn green.  Guess what drives past on the other side?  Yep, there it was.  Despite my bad mood, I had to laugh.  Pretty soon the Universe is going to get tired of me toying with its "coincidences."

Still, two of the most interesting and intriguing ones have nothing to do with any of this.  Maybe I should have a past lives regression reading to find out the hidden significance, but I think I'll just smile at the mystery of it all from my current existence.  First, there is the mystery of how an almost four month old blog post inspired by a random FB ad seems to suddenly be coming to the spiritual aid of citizens in a flood stricken middle eastern country half a world away.  Second, there's the mystery of a fifteen year old who somewhat nervously composes a letter to someone she doesn't know.  The reason why she composes it (so she thinks) is because she's been forewarned through three degrees of separation that this individual will be departing from a vicarious canvas soon-before any printing press could do the same.  She doesn't remember what the letter said, but what she does remember is including a poem, a sort of randomly picked "piece of advice," so to speak, that didn't seem to fit at all with the rest of the composition.  She wonders if it will ever really reach its intended recipient and why in the world she felt the need to include that "piece of advice."  This week the fifteen year old got her answer (or so she thinks).  Yes, it reached its intended recipient, even if it took eighteen years to do so. 

It's strange how random coincidences like this reveal that what we think of "time" doesn't really exist.  Our higher selves somehow already know what we need, when we'll need it, and whomever else it will need to involve delivering those helpful messages to the part of us that is bound by a linear experience.  A river's water is always really flowing in both directions, it's just a matter of which side of the bridge you're standing on. 

I suppose that's the real joy of "random coincidences"-finding out that they're not really "random" at all.