Ripples of Synchronicity

Here’s an interesting post on synchronicity from Clay Sellers, whose blog is called, Rethinking Complexity: Studying Systems for a Humane and Sustainable World.

Last month, during my sojourn through the amazing beauty of Sedona, Arizona, I decided to do something I have never done in my life nor have I ever really wanted to do: I visited a psychic to receive a spiritual “reading.”  For most of my life, I have moved in the world of rigid organization and technology and that association has never encouraged me to seek the insight of someone who claims to have a finger on the pulse of spiritual ebb and flow of life.

As I sat before this mystic, a Native American surprisingly down to earth and not at all who I would have expected, the following admission came out right at first: “All my life I have really wanted to believe in magic, but I have never trusted Magicians,” I said.

Smiling and nodding, she pointed out that most people are skeptics, some more than others, and that she had no expectations and offered no promises other than to be open, honest, and kind. As the reading progressed—once again, not at all the spooky, mystical session laced with uplifting or ominous predictions—she simply talked about my past, my present, and my future. There were none of the “clarifying questions” I’d seen or heard in so many televised readings, only her declarations about what she felt or believed I’d experienced yesterday, what was around me today, and what I might look forward to tomorrow.

I won’t ramble on about all that I felt or that I took away, but want to relate one aspect of our discussion that rang a bell so distinctly I almost believed I’d actually heard the ringing. As she spoke about my past moving into my present, she declared that I am increasingly touched by synchronicity. I involuntarily smiled, for that word seemed suddenly so appropriate.  Harkening back to Carl Jung’s concepts, I noted that synchronicity describes events that don’t seem to be at all causally related, but when contemplated together, present significance or meaningfulness. Since I’d only the previous week held a conversation with a colleague where we’d also earnestly discussed synchronicity, I smiled at the irony in the close temporal and ideological connection between the two discussions.

As a now out-of-the-closet systems theorist, I am rarely surprised by connections of all sorts. Connections pervade my worldview and help define how I process purpose, and direction, and design in life. I often employ that associative concept that uses the analogy of ever-widening ripples caused by tossing a pebble into a pond to describe how a tiny action can have continuing, significant effects. If I then overlay the idea of synchronicity onto those circles, I arrive at an interesting theory of life and its harmonies: ripples of synchronicity.

Just for a moment, find a quiet spot (even though that’s very difficult to do these days) and consider all of the echoes around you; all the events and even artifacts that hint of harmony. Look at the shapes to which you’re drawn—wine glasses and vases and palm tree trunks. Then, perhaps, listen to the wind and the rhythms that the moving leaves and branches provide. Patterns that recur all about you become apparent. After that, look to the skies and the regularity of the clouds and the joyful flow of day and night. Finally, take joy in thinking of the friends and family whose mannerisms you can easily foretell and who finish your sentences, bringing laughter from both of you. These places and sights and souls embody a reassuring synchronicity that brings to you both comforting patterns and delightful surprises in ever broader loops and swirls that carry you out from that pebble of birth.

And if that isn’t magical, perhaps I’ve been missing the point.