September 29, 2007

Coincidences


Concidence:
The occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection.

I have read that there is no such thing as a coincidence, that there is nothing that happens by accident. Having experienced a few of my own, I have wondered about that.

I know that most everyone has experienced thinking of a particular person, and suddenly the phone rings, and it's the one you were thinking about -- or you pick up the phone to call someone, and that person is calling you at the same time. That happened just today. I called my husband on his cell phone, but as soon as I entered his number, without hearing his phone ring, I heard the sound of the cd playing in his car -- he had just called me, and we connected at the same time. The thing with the telephones is probably very common, and maybe not too much of a mystery -- but there are some coincidences that don't occur that often, and can be quite interesting.

Many years ago, we were living in California and made a trip back home to Alabama to pick up my mother who was planning to live with us for awhile. We were driving across the desert, and had some minor problem with the car. We were pulled over onto the side of the highway to check it out, and we all got out of the car, because it was so hot. As we stood there, a trucker pulled over and asked if we needed help. We stood there talking for awhile, and he told us that he was from Florida. He looked at my mother and said, "You know, you look just like my best friend. You look enough alike to be brother and sister. My mother told him that she didn't live in Florida, and had never even been there. He laughed, and said, "He's not from there, either, I think Amos is from somewhere in Georgia." My mother said, "That's my brother's name!" He asked her his last name, and when she told him, he could hardly believe it. They were talking about the same man! What are the odds that my uncle's sister, and his best friend would meet for the first time going across the desert, both headed to California?

Here's another weird one: A couple of months after I was first married, my husband and I had gone into a drugstore to buy greeting cards, and to get a sandwich at the lunch counter. After eating, we looked at cards, and on the way up to the cash register, I spotted a table with puzzles and games, and one game, in particular, caught my eye. I had an overwhelming urge to look at that game! I started toward it, and my husband said, "Come on, let's go." I said, "No, I want to see this game," and reached out and pulled him quickly toward me. Just as I did that, a huge fan dropped from the ceiling, right onto the spot where he had been standing! The name of the game? A HOLE IN THE HEAD!

Now, how about the coincidences in your life?

11 comments:

Rio Vista Boy said...

Some would argue that life is but a series of coincidences in a world filled with free will, but I believe that we live in a closed environment where free will still leads to predictable if possibly chaotic patterns. Those patterns make it possible for coincidences to exist. Those coinincidences increase as a soul walks the closest path to the patterns of life that they are meant to follow.

TO BECOME said...

Jan., I call that the protection of God. We never know all the things we are protected from by the Lord each day. That is my thoughts. Thanks you, connie from Texas

Jan said...

"Those coinincidences increase as a soul walks the closest path to the patterns of life that they are meant to follow."

vin...maybe that's what people mean when they say, "our paths were meant to cross."

I believe in divine guidance, but I realize that not everyone does.

Jan said...

Connie...I certainly believe that happens more than anyone realizes.

Thanks for your comment.

Desert Cat said...

I'm not sure I call things like these coincidences so much as I see the workings of God in my life and others.

That phone trick alone is enough to convice me we have connections between ourselves and the people we are close to, that defies naturalistic explanations.

On that topic, my wife recently had outpatient surgery. I was minding my own business in the waiting room, working on a sketch, when I suddenly felt an awful, queasy sensation, kind of a green-under-the-gills discomfort. Based on when the doc came out to talk to me, that was just about the moment they started cutting her.

The two shall become one flesh... Uh huh. And only one of us is under anaesthesia...*whew*.

Later I felt her coming out of anaesthesia and the exact moment she was coherent enough to speak to the recovery room staff, and accurate to within a minute I knew when they would call me to bring the car around to pick her up.

I've been this sensitive before when I was foucsing and trying to be with her during a previous surgery, but this time my connection with her was all on its own.

Nancy said...

Yah, I call a lot of the coincidences that little angel on my shoulder. I should listen to my angel more often...

But there have been several times where...for no particular reason, I slowed down, once even pulled off the road and stopped my car, only to find I've missed being caught up in an accident.

And then there's the car I bought from my grandmother, who blessed it with the help of some of her friends. I was driving into Houston from another county, when I noticed that there were no families fishing in the irrigation canals. There were usually lots of families doing that.

Just as I spotted my first family of the day, I had a tire blow-out.

I landed within 100 yards of the only help available for me for 20 miles either way.

I asked the women folk of the family if I could borrow the help of their menfolk, they changed my tire, I tried to give them money, they wouldn't accept it at first, but I insisted.

See, I'd noticed. No picnic at this family fishing expedition. And it was close to the end of the month.

I guess we needed each other.

Jan said...

"I've been this sensitive before when I was foucsing and trying to be with her during a previous surgery, but this time my connection with her was all on its own."

DC..I know exactly what you are saying. There is a very real connection with certain people in our lives.

My younger son and I have had an uncanny one, since he was hardly more than a baby, to the point of dreaming about the same thing on the same night, or to start talking about something the other is thinking. It is just one of those unexplainable things.

Maybe, soon I will blog about that. As far as seeing God working in one's life, I really believe that.

Jan said...

Nancy..you are so right.

There have been several times, while traveling, when I took a wrong turn, taking several minutes to get back onto the highway, and then seeing a horrible accident right at the spot I would've been, had I not made a wrong turn.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Anonymous said...

Oh... gotta post about this. The story is too long. :)

Cat - that's just so strange. Cool, but strange. I've heard of that with twins but not with other people. You must be extremely close.

Anonymous said...

Cat-my husband and I have been married for over thirty years and we a frequently on each others' "radar." One night, before cell phones, I knew he was enroute to the house. I had gotten out late from work and was exhausted and wished I could call him and have him pick up pizza. He walked in the door twenty minutes later with pizza! He said he "just had a feeling." We finish each other sentences, think about calling each other at the same time,etc. He has always called me his soulmate. I guess that is what we are.

Jan said...

Sue..I'll be looking forward to reading your story about this stuff. :)

rockync..that kind of closeness comes in handy, doesn't it? It happens all the time in my family, too.