Old Friends

In 2007, my friend Carol Bowman – author and researcher into past lives – received a call from a woman who was interested in bringing Carol’s story/books to television. Carol, whose journey is illustrated in her two books – Children’s Past Lives and Return to Heaven – and on her blog , is an avid Simpsons fan. So imagine her surprise when the caller turned out to be Julie Scully, who used to write for the Simpsons.

During the course of their conversation, it occurred to Carol that Julie should talk to Trish. “I didn’t know why,” Carol says, “but I brought up your name. There was a moment of silence, then Julie said, Wait a minute”…and she pulled your book from her pile of favorites on her desk and said that she uses your tarot book all the time.”

The other day, I received an email from Carol, reminding me of this odd occurrence. “Doesn’t this qualify as a synchronicity?” she asked.

And yes, to us it does. The three of us are intrigued by reincarnation.Well, for Carol, it’s more than intrigue. It’s her work and her passion. I met Carol after her first book, Children’s Past Lives, literally fell at my feet one day years ago while I was browsing the aisles at Border’s. I devoured the book in a few days, wrote to her, and subsequently recommended her to my agent, who became her agent and sold her second book. Julie and I are linked not only through our enjoyment of the tarot, but through the Seth books, written by medium Jane Roberts in the 70s and 80s. Then there’s the Simpsons connection for Carol and Julie, and that we’re all connected as writers. Somehow, everything came together in March 2008, when Julie and Carol came to Florida and we spent a long weekend together with several other people whose synchronistic connections to the group were also prevalent.

We may not have figured out the mystery of the universe, but we certainly started figuring out the mysteries of our connections. And maybe that’s how synchronicity works at the most personal levels, linking our individual stories to a larger collective, to the tribe of consciousness that birthed us.
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Julie’s recollection is: “I didn’t rifle through books on my desk. Trish’s tarot book was the ONLY book on my desk! It’s the only book I use when I attempt to do an amateur tarot reading. It’s the only book on tarot I’ve given out as gifts to friends. We were all connected by books. I read Carol’s book, her book jumped out at you, I read your book… Wait a second… I don’t have a book. Maybe you two inspire me to write one. Or you two cross over into my world – TV & Movies. That feels like synchronistic symmetry to me!”

UPDATE: Teapot, I should have clarified this. Carol lives in Pennsylvania, Julie lives in Malibu. They had never met. Their conversation took place by phone.