Today a few words on the mysterious, spiritual guidance we receive when we most need it and are actually open to it.
Carl Jung labeled this phenomenon synchronicity, and though there is no scientific evidence for it, countless numbers of us have experienced such moments. Call it intuition, gut instinct, ESP or coincidence, all of these point to an intelligence that shows us the way or confirms we’re on the right track.
Over the years I’ve shared some examples of these, some of which transformed my life in ways difficult to believe and for which, I should add, I am beyond grateful.
Today, another example, this one wonderful and bizarre and, at this point, wholly expected.
You’re Getting Married Where?
Over the following year my daughter started exploring various options. This is where the synchronicities started occurring. Unbeknownst to me, Joel Goldsmith, my favorite spiritual teacher, had long called Hawaii home. When I realized this, I simply smiled to myself. What are the chances I thought.
But then my daughter announced she’d picked the island: Oahu. Yep, that was the island on which Joel lived and taught through the 1950s.
More weeks passed. The city on Oahu was chosen. Kailua, home to roughly 20,000 people. Yet again, Goldsmith’s home city. I shared these coincidences with my wife. “Wow, what are the chances? she said.” I couldn’t help laugh.
On a lark, I did some online sleuthing to see if any of Goldsmith’s more ardent, local students might still be alive (Goldsmith died in 1964). Turned out there was – he was approaching 80 – and we agreed to meet at a local coffee shop. It was a wonderful discussion and before we parted ways I asked if he could recall Goldsmith’s home address – I wanted to drive by it if possible. He shared it and off I went.
When I got there something seemed to register and I called my wife: “Hey, what is the address of the actual wedding venue?” It was literally adjacent to Goldsmith’s home.
During the ceremony I’d be able to see his home it from the outdoor altar. What are the chances?
One More
The post-script is just as fun. Not so many months after the wedding, my daughter announced she and her hubby were relocating to a small but growing city in North Carolina.
I didn’t think much of it at the time. But not long after the wedding I got in touch with an Arizona woman Goldsmith’s former student had told me about. Apparently she ran a Goldsmith group that I was hoping to join.
She was very kind, but informed me that while she still participated in the group, she’d handed the reins to a younger man who lived in – drum roll please – North Carolina. Yes, a hop and a skip from my daughter’s new home. (Since then he and I have met on a few occasions for coffee.)
I have had many ‘teachers’ over the years, all of who reached me in ways different from the other. But none have resonated with me the way Goldsmith has. And so part of me thinks that my commitment to Goldsmith’s teaching was, in a beautiful and mysterious way, confirmed by all of these little synchronicities.
If we’re paying attention and if we’re open to such messages, I suspect they’re occurring far more often than we think. Perhaps they are the whispered offerings of guardian angels urging us forward. Perhaps. All I can say is that I am so incredibly grateful.
