a couple of days of weird coincidences

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous
Albert Einstein

I suppose in one week when you talk more than you have in ages, when you share stories and feelings and cry and laugh your mind is probably more open and alert to coincidences than usual.  A couple of strange things have happened to me this week, starting on Wednesday morning.  Nic had been using Michael's car.  I did a bit of clean up of books and papers (a few empty Steri Stumpie bottles) and stuff that had collected on (and under) the back seat.  Under the passenger seat I found a book by Edward de Bono - the lateral thinking guy who has written lots of books on positive thinking and other such stuff.  John read a lot of his books.  I picked up the book and opened it to see who it belonged to and in it were John's notes.  He used certain books as text books and made notes, drew pictures and used post-it's to reference pages.  I looked at it briefly, paged through it a bit and noted his distinctive handwriting and the way he loved to use graphs.  I had not seen anything he had written for ages, thought nothing of it and put the book down in a pile (a big pile) of Nic's belongings.  Later that same day I received the phone call from his brother Dennis advising me that John was dead.

On our road trip to Kimberley and back this weekend Nic started chatting about Rondebosch Prep School.  Mr Lane was the headmaster at the time and Nic told the story of how in assembly Mr Lane made nearly a whole hall of little boys cry while reading a story out of "Chicken Soup for the Soul".  Nic retold the story of a crippled little boy and a puppy that he wanted to buy.  At the end of the story Mr Lane made mention that Jenny Rosslee had given him the book to read and he thought he would use the stories in assembly.   That entire day Nic was persecuted by boys "Thanks for that, hey Rosslee!!".   Yesterday morning while looking through photographs the boys were wanting me to find, I found this thank you card:-

I was also looking for a lovely little book of poems and "words to comfort" that I had bought years ago.  My bookshelves are not organised at all but next to this little book was another one that I had totally forgotten about and if you had asked me where I had bought it or who had given it to me, I could not have told you.

Since finding it and thinking about it, I think John bought it for me when my step-dad died.  Not really the kind of thing he would normally have done and weird that I should have picked it up now.

To finish off when I broke the news to Albertina - my charlady who has been working for our family for many years.  She was the boys' "nanny" when they were growing up. She was so sad and tearful.  She told me that only last week Nic had asked her to pray for John and that they find him.   She said she had been saying lots of prayers.  When I told Nic the story his reply was "I thought her prayers would work".  I had not thought of it that way.

The text message she sent me was too special:-

"Hi Jen.  Hope you drive safe.  I pray for you and boys.  Tell the boys God is always there for them - all the time.  I love you guys"


So whether these are coincidences or not it has made me think.

According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment,  just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying.  Things don’t bother you anymore.  You become light hearted and full of joy.  The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.
- Deepak Chopra

For the first time, I think, that I am starting to understand some of the above.  I keep referring to the 4 Stages of Spirituality which I have printed out and re-read often.  It kind-of makes you make sense of the "bad stuff" that gets thrown our way.  Maybe it is time for me to start digging for my dusty Deepak Chopra books which I bought years ago after seeing him on Oprah when I was looking for answers to many questions. I thought he was just the guru I needed but I could not get fully into his way of thinking and a lot of it was a bit O double D.  Perhaps I am older and wiser and a little more open to new ideas and ways of thinking. Perhaps I am just plain O double D.

me and me boys at the beeg hole