The Subject of Coincidence

I wasn't intending to blog on the subject of coincidence today, but it seems to be willing itself into being. Maybe because I read a chapter from The Three "Only" Things last evening.

This morning upon awakening, I could recall two brief dream scenes from during the night. In one, I was talking to an acquaintance. I had no awareness of what we were talking about, but I kept wishing I could think of his wife's first name, but just could not. In the second scene, I was saying repeatedly to someone, "Where is Beaver Lake?" I'm not familiar with any place by that name.

Anyway, while I was out doing calf chores this morning, I had to walk out to the burn pile. This took me by a pen of older calves, which I rarely pay any attention to. I happened to glance at their pen and just one calf was looking right at me with her nametag visible. The name on her tag was "Ellen"........and I realized right away that was the name of the man's wife in my dream last night. The name I couldn't think of while in the dream!

We'll see if anything comes of "Beaver Lake"! I'm not holding my breath.

When I opened my email this morning, there was one from an old friend who lives in Kentucky. She emails me very rarely. The title of her email was "You Can't Make This Stuff Up". It included a link to a news story about the recent tragic death of a policeman and his police dog in Kentucky. The dog had his own casket, and was buried in the cemetery next to his owner. My friend found this interesting not only because of the unusual story, but also because when she was here in Iowa over Christmas, we had discussed a recent funeral in our community, also involving a dog in a casket! A tragic accident had taken the lives of a young married couple. Shortly before that their dog had been diagnosed with leukemia, so the couple's family had the dog euthanized, and he lay at the feet of his mistress, in her casket! We had quite a discussion about this at our Christmas get-together, and in her email, my friend wrote that it seemed "bizarre" that a similar incident so quickly came to her attention.

Actually, I've never brought up the subject of coincidence with any of my friends, or with anyone at all, for that matter. Its so difficult to explain that one feels nutty trying to do so, which is why I'm appreciating the book The Three "Only" Things. The author does a good job of clearly describing coincidence, synchronicity, serendipity, and their connection to dreams and seemingly trivial occurrences in our daily lives. And he cites many examples from history, important discoveries, and famous people like Mark Twain. To me, the book takes coincidence and synchronicity out of the category of odd and weird, and gives it status as simply something that exists in normal, everyday life.

The first time I ever saw the word "synchronicity" was in Sue Monk Kidd's book, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. I didn't agree with many things in her book, but the author's description of synchronicity was right on and hit me like a bullet. In my own past are many experiences that made me wonder, "How could that have possibly happened the way it did........just like it was set up, or planned." Hopefully, I can get these experiences out of my head and onto my blog. I have a drawer-full of journals filled with dreams and experiences, and need to take a look at those again, too.

Anyway, I'm just not able to ignore the unusual occurrences in life. Maybe my Christian faith is lacking in some way. I do all the stuff a Lutheran is supposed to do, but am not able to be numb to experiences. If there is one thing I fear most in life, it is not being able to FEEL.

Now, I need to quit this post and go do laundry and load the dishwasher. Then there are checkbooks to balance and tax info to prepare and the never-ending clutter of life to attend to. I have a sick calf to check on, too. The vet looked at her this morning and diagnosed pneumonia. I don't often care too much about any certain calf, but this one was born on Father-in-Law's birthday, which was also the day he passed away, and we named her after him. So I really want her to live and grow up and be around as a milk cow for many years!

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P.S. - Another small coincidence from a couple days ago. In some of my recent posts I have vented frustrations about my mom. Two days ago I received a forward from a pastor out in AZ.......(met him on a Lutheran discussion board, and he doesn't know about my blog.) The forwarded email was a lovely one about MOTHERS! Something you might expect to see around Mother's Day. I immediately realized I needed to absorb it and renew my appreciation for my mother. I don't often send forwards on, but this one I sent on to two friends, one whose mother just past away, and one whose mother is very ill with cancer.