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?