Do You Believe in Synchronicities?
Photo: Alicja Kwade's ParaPivot installation (2019) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
People say, “there’s no such thing as a coincidence.” Which basically means that there’s something to them.
A synchronicity, or “meaningful coincidence,” is a word first coined by Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, and a simple example of this phenomenon – in which there exists a direct cause and effect, a connection between what is happening internally (your thoughts) and what appears externally, is that you think of a friend and they call you. “I was just thinking of you!” you say, the hairs on your arm rising.
It’s a subject I’ve been fascinated by for years and even have a “synchronicity journal” to keep track of all of them in my life.
In addition to the works of Jung, many books have been written about synchronicity, and I have found those of Bernard Beitman, MD to be quite interesting, and he has a podcast called Connecting with Coincidence.
As it is the last week of the year and exactly six years ago I experienced one of my most interesting cases of synchronicity, I thought I’d share that story here.
I had discovered a job opening at my organization that was a step above my current position and in a different department. I was fairly happy with what I had been doing, but also had a bit of malaise and a part of me thought it was time to advance myself. I was hoping to have a peaceful, reflective last week of the year, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, came and went, the deadline to apply was December 31, and I was haunted by this job opening.
As I was not working during this limbo space between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I decided to go into the city to walk and do some shopping. I arrive at my bus stop and was shocked to see at the exact spot where I would wait for said bus, on the floor, a wet and rumpled folder. I zoomed in on it and the name on the cover was legible – it was the name of my organization. Mind you, it is not a well-known one – not Disney or Goldman Sachs.
What was the universe trying to tell me? That I should apply for that job? Or was I simply “in the flow” with the energy of the universe; that is, I was thinking of something (inner landscape) and that was reflected in the outer landscape.
I decided not to apply for that job – there was just something that was holding me back; maybe it was fear, or maybe it was something else. Fast forward six years and I now work in that department, albeit in a different position. My ex-colleague (in the original department) applied for that job – only to then lose it as part of budget cuts this past April.
Was I being protected six years ago by the universe or my Higher Self, knowing that I would lose that job in the future? Maybe my intuition was on track too. I’ll never know, but the synchronicity moved me and gave me faith that, ultimately, we end up in the right place.
Cheers to listening to our inner voice and noticing the synchronicities!
