If my mother's posting machine had not broken, my life would have been completely different.
What, you say? How was the breakdown of a piece of machinery a life-changing experience? Well, that little piece of mangled paper that clogged the internal workings of that machine twenty-seven years ago was the flapping of the butterfly's wings in China that started a sequence of synchronicity...
In the dark ages before real computers, my mother worked in a bank. Her job was to post all the transactions for the day to microfiche. This involved physically taking the paperwork of the transactions (deposit slips, checks, etc.) and running them through to posting machine for recording purposes. Her posting machine had never broken down to the point of needing a technician in the eight years she had been running it. (First flap of the butterfly wing...)
Apparently one of the checks was much more ragged than usual, and a bit of paper in the gears brought the entire operation to a halt that day. A non-user-fixable halt. (Second flap.) A technician had to be called, and by the time the machine was fixed and she had completed the run, it was late.
On the way home (she was never in the car at 5:45PM on a Tuesday - third flap) she heard on her favorite radio station that they needed a weekend overnight announcer. I was a student, taking a full course load, but I had been looking for a part-time job. She called me when she got home about the position. I had never been inside a radio station before, but I could talk (boy, could I talk...) and this seemed like an interesting opportunity.
I called the station the next morning, and had an interview that afternoon. The next day I was informed I had the job. (Was that the fourth flap?) I trained on Friday night, and by Saturday I was running two radio stations (AM and FM - they need different voices, you know...) all by myself. I was terrified. Throwing-up terrified. But I got better, and actually began to enjoy it.
After three months or so the midday DJ left for another station. I applied for the job, and got it. It was tough working around classes, but I managed.
Then we got a new news director. He was tall, smart, and funny. And not married. A month or so later, he asked me out. I said yes. A year later, he asked me to marry him. I said yes.
That was twenty-seven years ago. We have been through thick, thin, just about nothing, and cancer. We survived.
Without that bit of chaos at the bank, my future husband's and my paths would never have crossed. We could just as well have been living on different continents had it not been for a piece of paper/butterfly wing that clogged my mom's posting machine. My life would have been completely different. Not better or worse as such, but different. And I had to take that leap into the unknown (a job I had never done before) for this whole scenario to play out.
Carl Jung said it pretty well, I think...
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
But you must not forget Master Yoda...
For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.
I like the idea that everything seems to be connected on a quantum level. And sometimes, when we least expect it, what looks like total chaos produces that shining moment of synchronicity.
We all need to pay attention. We can effect change in so many ways, even unconsciously. I welcome a bit of chaos every now and then, just enough to noodge me out of my comfort zone. You never know what might happen...
What examples of synchronicity have you experienced? Were they in little quiet bits, or a big, honking, clanking pile?
What might the universe be trying to tell you?
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OT - but not really... Long-time Gulf Watcher Regina in a Sears Kit House is dealing with serious medical conditions. Diaries are here and here. Please read the diaries; help can come in many forms, including prayers and focused thought.
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And since this is the Block Party and we need music...
From the aptly-titled album Synchronicity, the Police..
Every Breath You Take
Wrapped Around Your Finger
And just because I like it...
Message in a Bottle
