Thursday, April 24, 2008

Coincidence

I had a clairvoyant moment yesterday. The trouble with clairvoyance is that it doesn't announce itself like say a headache does. No, it's one of those things that only seems clear after the fact. Clairvoyance has many monikers, intuition, gut feeling, sixth sense and what have you. Anyway, in my first class of the day I was with my private student and we had decided to exchange novels for reading. She brought me her copy of Perfume, and I lent her my copy of The Alchemist. The book was given to me by an old acquaintance, Anny, and I read her inscription on the inside cover and reminded my student to make sure to return the book since it had some sentimental value. I thought about Anny and how it's been too long since we've been in touch. After the noontime class, I cooled my heels in the park, and darned if there wasn't a girl who looked like Anny sitting on one of the benches. I approached to get a better look only to realize that I had been mistaken. That was weird, I thought, I wonder why I've got Anny on the brain today. My late afternoon class began, and we are in the part of the session where I show films in class. Yesterday I showed Sliding Doors, a cute little romantic film whose central theme is fate. I noticed little things in the film I hadn't noticed before, notably the moments of the universe giving signs and the central character's intuition. If you don't know the film, the idea is "what happens if you miss the metro train as opposed to making it onto the train." The story is told in parallel, the plot of making the train leading the main character to discover her boyfriend in flagrant délit with another woman, and the missed train plot where she does not arrive in time to discover the cheating boyfriend. It doesn't matter though because all the significant events occur simultaneously in both plots and the result, well you'll have to rent it for that.

After class, I trudged over to the metro to await my ride home. I was still mulling over the destiny theme from the movie when I saw Anny standing on the other side of the tracks. I called out to her as there was no mistaking it this time and we chose to miss our trains and join up upstairs to catch up. We hadn't seen each other for over two years. I told her how she had been on my mind that day and why and isn't it strange that we would run into each other. She reminded me that there are no coincidences. I figure I knew we were going to meet, I just didn't know that I knew. Now if only I can tune this thing to the winning lottery numbers...

16 comments:

Lemuel said...

I think you already won the lottery and its payoff was in people like your Anny.

Snooze said...

Isn't it great when fate intervenes? I believe that you must by very open to the universe and all its possibilities right now.

Anonymous said...

I believe in fate. Perhaps you needed to see an old friend. Make new friends but keep the old, those are silver but these are gold. Ed

CoffeeDog said...

Wow, how great when things like that happen.

Birdie said...

I'm supposed to meet a friend next Wednesday while I'm on vacation. Yesterday he called, wondering where I was. After we straightened out the confusion, we talked about a real struggle I'm having with my son. Turns out he used to work for the premier organization in the country which specializes in kids like mine. He's got me on track with them just before I have to leave. Coincidence? I think not.

Jeff said...

It's neat when these things happen. And I've been trying to fine tune my 6th sense to the 6/49 wavelength for years now, with very limited success thus far! Sliding Doors is a great film. We saw it quite a while ago and I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

Patricia said...

I love stuff like this. I think it happens more than we realize.

I also think it's quite possible that had you not been open to thoughts of Anny, you might not have seen her yesterday.

We blow off so much of our ability in this area as "coincidence" that I think we make it harder on ourselves than it needs to be.

Anonymous said...

I love this stuff, too! How awesome that you got to reconnect with Anny. I hope you get your book back too!
-Rox

Cooper said...

I think this kind of thing is so wonderful and amazing! You obviously have your soul finely attuned to your heart. Talk about alchemy! :)

GayProf said...

I like it when the universe delivers.

Butch said...

My family and our kin come from Irish lineage and their traditions of believing in the supernatural and all the wee signs that are shown to us along the paths of our lives. Superstitions abound and are still believed by many of my relatives.

I have had many moments when I could not get a person out of my mind that popped up for no apparent reason, only to find something has happened to them or I get a telephone call out of the blue from this person. How to explain it, I can not.

My mother was very psychic and no one could explain it without going back to the family superstitions. The one that explained it was that my mother was born with a caul over her face, thus, giving her the "sight." Sounds good enough for me. ;-)

Summer said...

I love when this kind of thing happens. Sometimes a split second before a song comes on the radio I know what it will be. Or when you call someone on the phone, they pick up to call you and you're already on the line. Strange how that happens sometimes. Fate can be eerie. I'm glad you got to reconnect with a friend. I wonder if she had been thinking about you?

Greg said...

That's so cool...not only the precog bit, but that you had unexpected Friend Time!

I remember that movie, and should probably sit down to enjoy it again sometime.

ChickenStrip said...

I do the same thing with dreams. It's weird, but some come true right away.

I wish I would dream that my Sadie will be okay.

Patrick said...

Many of my pyschic experiences have been like this, having a friend on the brain, only to have him/her show up unexpectedly. One friend triggered it quite regularly. I knew if she popped into my head that I would see her that day, despite the fact that she was supposed to be on the opposite coast. It happened repeatedly.

Mark in DE said...

I love this post! I imagine things like this happening to me but they rarely do.

I LOVE "Sliding Doors"!

Mark :-)