Over the years, like a lot of siblings, my sister and I (Rob and his sister) have been at odds on various issues. The one that particularly annoys me is her continual (read intentional) difficulty in understanding synchronicity. She knows what a coincidence is, and that a synchronicity is supposedly a meaningful coincidence. But the ‘meaningful’ part of it has always stumped her. I’ve given her examples, but she always says, ‘So how is that meaningful? It’s just that you’re impressed by a coincidence. But that doesn’t impress me so much, so it’s just a coincidence to me.’
Just like when we were kids, she was still trying to counter whatever position I took on a matter. But then just recently the synchro angel came to my aid. Sister Sandy had a coincidence that was not only meaningful, but it blew her mind open. She finally gets it. She called to tell me about it and she still can’t get over it. Here’s what happened:
Sandy was on the phone talking to our mother who was waiting for a man to arrive from the gas company to look at her furnace that was giving her problems. They talked quite awhile and Sandy mentioned something puzzling that had happened at work. One of her co-workers has a friend who knows one of Sandy’s old boyfriends. But the co-worker didn’t know his name, leaving Sandy to guess.
She was telling the story to Mom and told her that it was probably Bob Jasper. She hadn’t seen him in nearly 20 years and wondered how the woman had connected her with Bob…if that’s who it was. (It later turned out to be someone else, but that doesn’t matter for this story.)
Mom interrupted Sandy’s musings by saying that a truck had pulled up in front of the house. It was probably the gas company. “I’ll stay on the line and wait,” Sandy said.
When Mom returned to the phone after a few minutes, she sounded odd. “It wasn’t the gas man. But it’s someone who wants to talk to you.”
“He wants to talk to me? Who is it?”
“Hey, Sandy, how are you?” a man’s voice said.
“Fine. Who are you?” Sandy asked.
“Bob Jasper.”
“What? You’re kidding me, right?”
He wasn’t. It was him and he explained that he was installing a water heater two doors down and asked if Mrs. MacGregor still lived in the neighborhood. When he was told that she did, he decided to stop by and say hello.
“I still can’t believe it,” Sandy told me. “How could that happen? I was talking about him–a guy I hadn’t seen forever—and he walks up to the door. It blows my mind. And you know what else? After he got off the phone, he went and looked at the furnace for Mom.”
Now Sandy gets it. She knows the difference between synchronicity and mere coincidence. So is the synchronicity issue settled between us? I doubt it. Knowing my sister, it’s synchronicity when it happens to her, and a mere coincidence when it happens to me. That’s just the way it is with the two of us.
Everyone is on a different timetable . I’m one of 5 and two listen to me and find it interesting the other two, eh.
You’ve just got to accept!
I love that one! Ha! It’s a start for Sandy at least.
Very interesting story, and it goes without saying but I will say it anyway: things like this must be governed by science we do not yet understand, things that in, say, 300 years, will be common scientific knowledge. The collective unconscious, or what have you, is there and can be tapped into.
I think you’re right – although I hope it doesn’t take us 3 centuries to figure out the science! It seems that Jung may have been onto more than he figured when he came up with his theory about the collective unconscious.
My son always exasperates me by not getting it either and he makes fun of the incredible synchronicities that occur,many of which have been posted here. I came across a new explanation for synchros yesterday – it’s you playing with you! Your higher self that accesses everything playing with you!
Even when he’s part of the synchro??
This seems like a good story to go into a future synchronicity book.
Great stories! Or, if time is not what it seems, maybe we really are all connected……..
Double Syncro:
I looked at your post earlier this morning and was going to write that I had the same kind of sister you and Rob have. However, she is so frozen in her belief system that even when I dreamed of something that happened with her that I could not have known about but was verified by my other sister when I wrote to her about it she refused to acknowledge having read my letter and made no comment. I get very angry and depressed when I think about her life long attitude towards me and decided that talking about my sister wasn’t worth your time or mine. Instead I took a walk to a beach a few blocks away. The weather was good here for a change and I knew just sitting at the beach for a few minutes would be refreshing and healing.
I walked a short way down the beach and sat at the foot of some steps that lead up to some condominiums. A woman came walking along with her dog and made some friendly comments about how nice the day was, also revealing that she had just moved here this past week. She asked if she could join me on the steps for a few minutes. One thing led to another. She asked where I had moved from and inevitably the subject came up of my having lived in California for 23 years and how I always miss it. She wanted to know where in California. Sausalito. Where in Sausalito? She had been there many times to visit her favorite Aunt who was now 94 and just recently had to move to Washington State. She told me how much she enjoyed those visits, both because of how much she loved her aunt and also how she enjoyed the California visits and could well understand why I missed being there.
Her cell phone rang. She answered it and said, “We were just talking about you!” Yes, it was that Aunt who knew exactly where I had lived. My new acquaintance apologized for interrupting our conversation and explained that it was from this aunt we were in the middle of talking about.
I said, “Well that’s a synchronicity, alright. That’s a good one.” She looked puzzled, indicating to me that she was not even familiar with the word synchronicity. I said, “It’s a meaningful coincidence.” She brightened up, agreed that yes, it was a meaningful coincidence and wanted to know more about the subject. I told her about your site and tried to tell her about the I Ching which she had also never heard of. But she was open and wanted to know more.
All that to say that my anger and depression over my my rigid limited sister was assuaged and it seems that not only was this a fun synchor for me on the beach with a stranger, it also echoes the synchronicity you just wrote about.
Powerful, Adele!
p.s. There was another little synchro embedded in this that I forgot to mention. My anti-synchro sister is a therapist. The woman I talked to on the beach is a therapist. What a difference in attitude these two women had. Praise be the goddess of synchronicities!
Very interesting! It’s like the universe intended to show you that all therapists are not like your sister!
I knew that already. I have had several friends who are therapists who are familiar with synchronicity – Jungians, of course. I think the therapist part of the synchro is a healing for that moment. But that’s probably what you meant. However synchros are two way so I was there for her to for some reason as well. Time will tell.
Good one! I have only one sibling (out of three) that understands anything esoteric and he’s the “odd/crazy” one of the family. Or maybe the other two think they have TWO “odd/crazy siblings.” 🙂
It’s all perspective, I guess.
That’s a great one! Ah…sibling love.
Amazing synchro – especially actually being on the phone at that precise time. Like all things, I guess we comprehend things when the time is right.
Timing, timing…