Life Lessons

Synchronicity

by Robert

Synchronicity is a term coined by psychotherapist Carl Jung to describe the simultaneous occurrence of events that are meaningfully related but lack a clear causal connection. It refers to the sensation that coincidences are more than just chance.

I’ve been reading about the word in the Artists’ Way by Julia Cameron, and once I understood its meaning, I comprehended what’s been happening to me. My experience began the night Ruth died and has continued.
If you’ve read my posts over the past three years, you know that the night she died my smoke alarm sounded at the moment of her death. You know too, that two years later, my daughter, Elizabeth, smelled her mom’s perfume in the middle of the night, and that her husband, Sutton, wrote a song about the experience. Most of our family members have felt her presence at one time or another. Young Jackson James has had several encounters, and he was only eighteen months old at the time of her death.

I’ve spoken with family and friends, members of the clergy, met a psychic on a plane and we’ve come to the same conclusion. The unexplainable is a part of each of our lives. That’s why I wasn’t surprised last Thursday night after playing poker with my friends. It was my last opportunity to play before heading back to Florida.

If life would have worked out as planned, it would have been Ruth and my 54th wedding anniversary. But it didn’t, so it wasn’t. It was September 11th and as the guys were getting ready to leave, a previously posted blog popped up on my phone. I had written it over two years ago. It was about a series of events that took place on April 11th, 2023.

This is what I saw.

I decided to self-publish the blogs I’ve written. I’ve been planning this since the beginning but got hung up on a format. I hoped that my kids, their kids, and maybe their kids, would like to see the world through Ruth and my eyes. We’d done some things worth sharing and I have family stories from my youth I wanted to pass along. My blog became the medium.

My hang up was how. After years of vacillating, I jumped in the pool. I published my first book a couple of months ago. I printed enough so each of the kids, and I, would have a copy. My format turned out to be very simple. I organized the books just as I had written, one year at a time. I’ve got five books now and plans to publish the next at the end of the year. Using the chronological approach allowed me to see my thoughts as they arrived. Simple and direct.

My last batch of books arrived in the mail on April 11th. Earlier that morning I received a notice on my smart phone that had one of those “looking back” messages. Perhaps you’ve received them too. I opened the picture and found this. I’d taken the picture of Ruth on her birthday three years ago, April 11, 2020.

Elizabeth was here and I showed it to her. We discussed the photo and the times. Covid was the devil.

My most recent order of blog books contained collections from 2018, 2019, and 2020. The blog book from 2020 was lying face up when I opened the box. It’s the center book in this photo.

Elizabeth and I discussed the fact that the “looking back” photo and my new batch of books arrived on Ruth’s birthday. It’s just another example of things I can’t explain.

Facebook posts a number of “reels” each day. They’re short clips from tv shows, movies, and comedians. Watching the comedians is my favorite. I get a short laugh or thought to ponder. I looked at one from a Finish comedian, Ismo. It popped up on April 11th, the same day my books and my “looking back” picture of Ruth arrived. You could say the “reel” about April 11th appeared on April 11th so what’s the big deal. I wonder why Ismo picked that particular day to incorporate into his monolog. There are three-hundred and sixty-five dates he could have chosen, but he picked April 11th.

ISMO | Flying Through Time – YouTube

I’ve signed a contract to publish a book. It’s on my bucket list. I’ve met with a publisher a couple of times, and we’ve decided on a format. The book will contain selected posts from the last five plus years. My job is to narrow my current 400,000 words to about 50,000. Some stories will be left behind.

I shared my April 11th observations with my publisher, Nancy. She’s got a spiritual outlook on life similar to Ruth’s and mine. She goes a bit further and says there’s no such thing as a coincidence. And then there’s Albert Einstein’s observation. “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

I don’t know much about the topic, but I keep getting lessons. There are things I can’t explain. If I ever figure it out, I’ll let you know.

The blog that popped up was about events that took place on Ruth’s birthday in 2023. It did its popping on what would have been our 54th anniversary. That’s synchronicity at an all-time high. Two meaningful dates merging as I was saying good-bye to my friends.

When we moved to the Tullymore community from Lake LeAnn, Ruth insisted that I return to play cards with my friends whenever I had the opportunity. I’ve done that since our move in 2020. Last Thursday was the latest. I think the story popped up on my phone so Ruth could take part in my farewell. I was so shocked by its appearance that I read the blog to the guys. I’ve never done that before. No one commented on the reading, but I saw misty eyes on a couple of guys, so I know that they know what I know.

Some things just can’t be explained.

Editor’s Note:  I’ve struggled with the formatting of this story since I started writing.  The font is too large, some of the paragraphs are not what I’ve entered, and I’ve attempted to edit the format several times.  Nothing sticks.  Most of the synchronicity we’ve experienced has been electronic: chirping smoke alarms, talking toys, unexplained sounds, and the occasional poke at my writing when I write about Ruth.  It may not be what I’ve typed when I hit “publish”, but what you see is what you get.