Serendipity

Day 114

“The universe is always speaking to us, sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop, to look around, to believe in something else, something more.”

– Nancy Thayer

It’s 4pm on Sunday afternoon. I’ve just spent most of the day writing my overdue posts, and I’m tired. I still need to write yesterday’s post before I get backed up again. I had plans in the afternoon, and then I intended to relax for the evening and write yesterday’s and today’s posts later tonight.

As “luck” would have it, my afternoon plans fell through so I decided to write yesterday’s post. I had no idea what I was going to write about. I started thinking about what I did yesterday, and began to write about two distinct events that I thought had nothing to do with each other. As I wrote, it became clear that they were connected by a larger concept bringing them together in cohesive verse. As soon as I discovered this unifying theme, I decided to find a fitting image – sometimes the image helps my thoughts flow.

The search term I initially used to find an image led to another idea, which led to yet another idea that seemingly has nothing to do with my topic, and that’s where I found the perfect image. Once I found the image, I did a bit of research on that topic and found out that an event occurred on a day that is significant to my topic, and in fact adds a whole serendipitous twist to my post.

Now, I have the topic, the image, the quote, and the post is writing itself without any effort on my part – I am being guided through the process. The only thing I have left to come up with is a title, and as I wrote the last paragraph, the title presented itself too. This might sound a bit confusing right now, but it’ll make sense once I share the details. This preamble is to say that our thoughts always attract our experiences, and if you pay attention, you will see it in the most minute details of each day.

We live in a world of wonder and magic, where all things seemingly unrelated are intertwined and connected in ways beyond our imaginations. If you pay attention, you will be constantly awestruck with the perfect symmetry and synchronicity of All That Is.

It’s my younger sister’s 40th birthday. It’s a big day for her. I called her to wish her a happy birthday and we started talking about Prince. How could we not? We talked about the tributes I wrote and some of the details of how Prince affected her life. She was 8 years old when Purple Rain came out, and her memories of Prince from back in the day are linked to me.

My sister can be a real comedian sometimes. She had me in stitches when she said, “Ya, I could write a post about Prince too, but you wouldn’t like it. I remember watching Purple Rain with you. Who lets an 8 year old kid watch a movie like that?” She should not have been watching Purple Rain at 8 years old. I still can’t stop laughing as I write this. What did I know, I was so engrossed in the movie that it didn’t occur to me that it was way too explicit for kid. I’m cracking up again!

Our humorous conversation aside, her 40th birthday got me thinking about the rites of passage. A few months before I turned 40 years old, unlike most people, I was super excited and looking forward to this birthday. I felt like it was a rite of passage. That somehow, when you turn forty, you have arrived, you’re finally a real grown up.

In your 20’s, you’re just starting to figure things out, and you’re considered young and inexperienced. The 30’s are a time of growth, maturity and worldly achievement. It’s the time when you put all your ideas, ideals and dreams into practice, a time when you’re becoming an adult. You are no longer considered green, but you’re still collecting your stripes. Forty is the real passage into adulthood. You have earned your place at the table with the grown ups and people take you seriously. And you no longer take yourself so seriously anymore. 

Later on, I thought about my dad wishing my sister a happy birthday. I am sure his spirit is with her today, sending her love and positive energy for this very special birthday – her rite of passage into real adulthood. As these thoughts were floating through my head, I started thinking about Prince, the after life, and how the soul never dies; that when the spirit leaves the body, it is just another rite of passage.

So, these were my thoughts as I started to put this post together. I found a common tie between the eternal soul and my sister’s birthday in the rites of passage. When I went to look for a suitable image for this post, I did a search for ‘rites of passage‘, and that made me think of a ‘sacred fire‘. A search for that term turned up the featured image of the Olympic flame.

That, in turn, made me realize that the 2016 summer Olympics are almost here. A search on the upcoming games confirmed that the feature image was taken on Thursday in Greece, where an elaborate torch-lighting ceremony took place to start the movement of the Olympic flame to Brazil for the August games. As part of the ceremony, an olive branch was cut, and a white dove released into the blue spring sky, both symbolizing peace.

That rite of passage in Greece of the Olympic flame occurred as Prince took his rite of passage to the after life. My seemingly unrelated thoughts about my sister’s birthday, my father, Prince, and the concept of the rites of passage connected these events together in my consciousness, for me to share in my tiny little blog.

It seems coincidental, incidental, even inconsequential at first glance, but a closer examination reveals the truth of how we are all interconnected, the same way a butterfly in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas. We refer to this concept as the butterfly effect, but I think it’s something much greater than that. It’s the Universe in action. It’s the Law of Attraction at work.

In some way, I feel that the torch-lighting ceremony offers some kind of cosmic reverence for this man whose passing is so widely felt. I feel that it’s a celestial ceremony symbolizing Prince’s rite of passage, and an ethereal welcoming to the after world, to never ending happiness and eternal light.

It’s Divine. It’s the Majestic Divinity of the Universe. Universe, I am once again awestruck by Your Absolute Magnificence!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!