Signs & symbols surround us and many of them hold messages that we should heed. Guidelines. Insights. Hints about the future that may transpire.
In October when we were in Asheville, we went into a shop where Megan decorated a ceramic plate that was a tribute to and a gift for her roommate, Erin. I don’t recall what it said, but do remember that it was a nice tribute to their friendship. The plate was to be delivered once it was fired.
A few weeks later Rob and I were visiting Megan and noticed the ceramic plate from Asheville on the counter. It was broken and chipped. A tube of super glue sat beside it. “What happened?” Rob asked.
“Oh, Erin put it in the dishwasher and it broke when we took it out,” Megan replied. “I’m going to fix it with super glue.”
Later that evening, Rob remarked, “That’s not a good sign, Trish, about her continuing to live here.”
“Oh, c’mon,” I said, “They’ve already agreed that she’ll sign a new contract on December 2. It’s fine. The broken plate is a fluke.”
Erin, after all, is a woman Megan has known for a decade, since she was 16 and she and Erin were interning at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo. They maintained a friendship over the years and when Megan moved to Orlando, she and Megan reconnected. In late 2014, Erin’s parents bought a great little house on an acre of land that backed up a lake, and Erin asked Megan to live with her. Nika, Megan’s dog, had a great yard to run around in and chase squirrels and Megan had her art room filled with paintings. An ideal setup. The house was close to Megan’s dog walking clients and her Paint Nite venues. She has been really happy in this house.
But Rob kept referring back to the broken plate, how it was like a symbol from a dream that you’re supposed to pay attention to. We had both been reading Robert Moss’s book, The Boy Who Died and Came Back, and I felt we were unduly influenced by it. I mean, c’mon, sometimes events are just stuff that happens, right?
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Megan and I returned from a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, where we attended an Abraham-Hicks two-day conference. The conference was wonderful, the trip was great, but as soon as we walked into Megan’s place in Orlando, there was that plate still on the counter chipped and broken, still not repaired. That night when Erin got home from work, she seemed strangely preoccupied, uneasy, and I felt that maybe she resented my presence there as Megan’s mom. She said she was just stressed from work. I felt otherwise.
I kept obsessing about the broken plate, that broken tribute to a friendship.Fast forward to November 30. Megan had arrived back in Orlando after the Thanksgiving holidays and had gone out and bought a Christmas tree for the house. Our neighbor had given us some Christmas ornaments that I passed on to Megan and I’d found some Christmas lights on sale that I passed on to her.
But when she walked in the house that evening, Erin informed Megan that her brother had gotten a job in Orlando and wanted to live in the house and Megan would have to move out. All this, despite the fact that they had discussed the renewed contract and living together for another four or five years. She had known this since before Thanksgiving- when I’d felt her unease.
Erin’s argument? He’s my brother, what can I say? Well, the only thing to say here is that Erin’s parents own the house.
My dad bought me my first property, a one bedroom condo in Vero Beach, back in the day when 15 grand was a lot of money. He never tried to control what I did with that place, who I invited there, who I lived with, nothing. It was mine. My rent went to him. When I sold the place, I kept the profit and used it for a down payment on another condo, in Fort Lauderdale. In other words there were never strings attached.
Rob recognized the sign and Megan and I refused to acknowledge.
I don’t know if the friendship is as broken as the plate.But the living arrangement is broken. The big question now is: what’s next? We’ve found a one bedroom-place that may work, in the same general area in Orlando. We’ll see what signs and symbols have to say and proceed from there. Never again will I dismiss a sign as some random event. As Robert Hopcke said in his book by the same name, There Are No Accidents. We do not live in a random universe. The only question is simple: Are we paying attention?
Sometimes in life we seem to have to just go with the flow, perhaps a change will be good for Megan.
I believe the breaking of plates can also be a good symbol to some cultures.
I hadn’t thought of the broken plates that way! I’m going to do a little research on that. There may be more clues!
Friendships wax and wane, hopefully theirs can survive this blow to Megan. I agree with some of the other commenters; something significant may be coming down the pike for her. I have found many times in my life that when things seems the most depressing (and moving right after the holidays is depressing) something wonderful happens in the process. One year I lost my job right before Christmas and was terribly upset about it. But if I had not lost that job I would not have met my husband, who worked at the next place I was hired (for more money, benefits, etc., by the way.) Life works in mysterious ways and Megan understands more than most about how it works. Best of luck to her in the new home search.
Interesting story about your job loss -and then meeting your husband! Her home search has already begun. Thank you for the good wishes, Nancy!
Funny, on the subject of signs & symbols, I had been in two minds to go see a one-off screening of the 1964 movie starring Anthony Quinn, ‘Zorba the Greek’ this coming Sunday.
I’ve never seen it before, but had the nagging feeling that I should snap up a ticket and go.
Then I thought to myself if the universe really wants me to go it will give me a sign, like a Greek smashing a plate, or something like that.
Then when I was fixing a few “broken” links in some of my old posts to this blog, I came over to this site to use your search function to find that old post of yours (about Hummingbirds) and fix the link in my post.
Soon as I saw your Broken Plate post I knew this was my sign to grab my tickets to this weekend screening.
https://www.cineplex.com.au/movie/2768/
Thanks for the sign, just shows that everything is connected after all 😉
Wow, Daz! How great! You’re going to love Zorba!
And on the subject of paintings, plates and Greeks smashing plates, if you check out that link to the cinema site I purchased my ticket from, there is a You Tube about a stolen painting that hung in the cinema which was a self-portrait of the actor Anthony Quinn he painted of himself from the movie.
On 14th November 2015 ‘Triumph’ The painting by Anthony Quinn was stolen. Here is the news footage –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEznUPqlQaM
I’m off to check the link. A rather bizarre theft!
I hope that it’s back where it belongs on Sunday. 🙁
The synchros better get to work and make it so! I watched that news thing on the theft. Really intriguing.
Trish, and by inference, Megan,
The first thought that entered my my mind was of Julian Schnabel and his broken plate paintings/ work, and followed with that Megan was moving into different phrase creativity wise.
Then i read the posting. One could view it just an accident of hot plate hitting cold air as it was removed from the dishwasher. But following Robb’s lead, i can see this as a ritual although not by direct intent, but by a unknown said contract that :
A: is fullfilled
Or
B: must be acknowledeged or emotional pain will follow.
The forces of life are not always readily felt, seen or heard. Their presence is made manifest in these ” accidents of life ” . You have based a lot of your postings on synchronicity, maybe there is more activity coming from this time of distress in Megan’s life.
She will rise above this.
Be well,
Laurence
Love your take, Laurence – broken plates and heightened creativity! I suspect that’s part of it.
I really like the comments here, as well as your insight on intuition and “accidents”.
It really is true that so often what seems like an unlucky thing turns out to be something that opens the door to something better, or at least a necessary change or opportunity.
As I read and before seeing Connies prediction I also felt the universe is moving Megan for a good reason- but I do know it’s a more painful move if fate decides and you haven’t chosen it- it happened to me & I knew I wd find a better place and I knew I was being moved to a safer place but still mourned the loss. A month after I moved there was such severe flooding at my old place it washed the gas tank down river – helicopters, fire crew etc & I was loving my new place! Gotta feelin Megan will look back and feel the same! Also a synchro here! Last week I texted a friend you need to move from where you are! This week she felt aggressively & verbally attacked by other tenants, left shocked and upset, she had been there 2 years the others only a few months. She said tonight she packed and left with my words ringing in her ears!
Thanks for your insights, Jane!
I totally agree with Adele: when someone dumps you, CONSIDER IT A LUCKY BREAK. It’s been my experience that when something seemingly negative happens in my life that is painful, very soon something will follow that is extremely positive and that would not have happened if the negative something hadn’t happened. And, I think the Universal Consciousness alerts us in one way or another when a SIGNIFICANT change is imminent in our lives. Moving is a significant event, as is the loss of a long-time friend. I have an intuitive sense from this situation with Megan that there is a very “large” and happy something waiting just ahead. If I may be so bold as to predict at least a part of what I’m sensing for Megan, it involves her meeting someone who is going to bring a terrific aspect into her life. Let’s watch…..
Thanks, Connie. We’ll pass it on! She is feeling victimized right now…but knows better and will come out of it.
Thanks, CJ. We forwarded your comments to Megan.
YEA!
Too funny. I was just thinking of you when this comment came through!
Not enough. Attention, that is. I didn’t know this symbolism, very interesting.
I have begun to learn that the things I read about here will also manifest themselves to me before too long. I’ve been having vivid dreams that don’t want to leave me right away, as dreams usually do. I’m going to start writing them down so I can figure out what is being said to me. You have opened my eyes to things more than once; I’m lucky I found you! Helping others navigate this journey is so valuable. Thank you, Trish. 🙂
Rob was right on about that broken plate. I know that most people wold think he was off the wall when he made that observation before there was any reason to think the plate had anything to do with the rest of “reality.” Your discussion reminds me of a seminar I attended at the Nyngma Institute in Berkeley – years ago when Tartang Tulku, a Tibetan leader there, gave a workshop on dreams. The thing I took away from that weekend that has stayed is that the Tibetans ( or at least Tulku who gave the talk) was that he said there was no difference from dreams and waking so called reality. That we should always think of dreams as the same as waking reality and that reality as a dream. So Rob is correct in the Tibetan view that a broken plate in a dream would be taken seriously as having meaning – a symbol that points to beyond itself.
As for the roommate casting Meagan out for her brother – ummm – am sure there is more to that part behind the scenes.
I’m getting carried away here but this story reminds me of a time when I was working for a group in the Haight Hashbury district of San Francisco. They were far out people by most standards. But like the dream workshop, one of the gals there had a philosophy that has stayed with me . She said, “when some one dumps you, consider it a lucky break.” That will only be revealed for Meagan later, of course.
You’re friend was right, Adele. An opportunity.