Synchronicity

This summer my father picked up Carl Jung's book on synchronicity, and it has since become a regular topic of conversation. And since that point, it has also become an eerie presence in my life.

Synchronicity is the "experience of two or more events which are casually unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner". (Thank you Wikipedia.)

I had often confused this phenomenon with destiny, or serendipity (the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. Thank you again Wikipedia.)

In an effort to make sense of it all though, I choose chalk down these kinds of experiences to the idea that life is simply letting me know that I'm on the right path, as I watch pieces of the puzzle starting to fall in to place.

Here is what I'm talking about:

Six years ago, a close friend made me a necklace for my birthday; it was a woven hemp collar with a small golem figurine secured in its center. (The figurine came from a class trip to Prague several months earlier. The history of this mythological being comes from Jewish folklore, and as such it was a protector of the Jews in the Prague ghetto against anti-Semetic attacks.)

For years I have traveled across the globe and carried this necklace with me, always hanging it above the doorway in my bedroom; call it a superstition, I always felt like this was my way of warding off bad juju and somehow spiritually protecting myself.

This past summer however, it was the first time I traveled without it. For some reason, as I packed upon leaving one home to move to the next, I placed my golem in a box to store.

That same summer, I saw my friend who had made me that necklace; it was the first time we were too see each other since the necklace was made. Now, three months later, we are due to wed.

It's like life let me know that I wouldn't need the golem to watch over me anymore...

There is another moment which only came to light as of today...

Going back to this summer again, one thing I did bring along with me to my new home was a set of three pictures I have also carried with me everywhere I have gone. It is a set of three photographs of graffiti from Barcelona (one of the most incredible graffiti-decorated cities I've ever seen.) They are encased in small rimless-glass frames, and have been for years.

I tried to remove them from their frames this summer (so as to wall-mount them simply with scotch tape), but two of the three were stuck to the glass and would rip upon any attempt of removal. So I hung the glass frames with duct-tape. (I know, smart.)

One week later, the picture in the frame that could come out fell from the wall. The glass frame broke.

Today I have moved into yet another new home. I live here with three friends, one of whom is my fiancee. As I unpacked, I came across the two of what was left of my three framed pictures, wrapped in my scarf for protection. My fiancee unwrapped the pictures and upon discovering the two frames he said, "Sweet. You can hang them on the two hooks on the wall." At which point he motions over to a spot on the wall where sure enough, there were two hooks hanging perfectly in place to display the two pictures he held in his hands.

It's like life let me know that I'd only have enough space for two of those three pictures soon...

As life progresses it also carries this sense that it is unfolding; as if things happen on a continuum where events are seemingly random, but yet are closely interrelated.

It brings me a great comfort to look at things this way. It makes sense of the truly crazy yet wonderful moments that this world has to offer. It also makes sense of the perceivably mundane and unimportant moments that for some reason you remember upon experiencing some other seemingly everyday commonplace moment; a connection can be sensed.

I am curious to see what other kinds of events come my way as I move forward. It seems that the key to having this kind of relationship with life is to just be yourself, and do as you feel right; because when you drive through the country, mountainside or desert, you can control whether you go right, left or straight, but it is life that controls the obstacles and vistas that line up along your path.