Is life simply a matter of chance?
Last evening I had the good fortune of having dinner with a dear friend I have known for 25 years. When I first met Tamara, I was a student of her spiritual teachings while living in San Francisco. Out of all the teachers I have had the privilege of learning from, she is likely one of the most memorable and the most influential in my life.
As life would have it, I moved from the city where I used to attend Tamara's classes to the North Bay Area to Utah and now I reside in a rural community in Oregon.
Even though I lost touch in the usual sense of the word, I never lost touch in my heart.
Fast forward to today. A few months ago while out to dinner at a restaurant in Eugene, Oregon, I was incredibly surprised when I heard a voice coming from the other side of the room that sounded just like Tamara. The most amazing thing is that Tamara is a very soft spoken person. She is not one you would expect to be able to hear across the noise of a crowded dining area.
Another amazing aspect of this encounter was the decision to go to this particular restaurant on this particular evening at this particular time. It was a last minute choice for the group I was with that evening. We were considering several things to do and it was as if we were lightly "nudged" to go to this restaurant.
As someone who believes that life has moments of divine intervention that are so apparent we cannot deny them (unless we choose to), I am convinced this moment of reconnection was one of those special moments.
I have to smile as I think about the fact that had I made a different choice the evening I heard Tamara's gentle voice from across the room, I might not have reconnected with her after all these years.
It turns out that Tamara moved to an area that is about ten miles from where I live over four years ago. We moved to our present home almost two years ago.
Life is always offering us amazing experiences if we choose to view them this way. By amazing, I am not talking earth shattering. Often the most amazing experiences and happenings are those that are the most subtle and yet, can have an incredible impact on our life.
The truest gift we can give to ourselves is to be open to possibility and open to acknowledging amazing moments. After all, our experiences in life is more about the interpretation of the experience than the experience itself.
What is your interpretation of those subtle moments that can literally be life changing?
Many blessings,
Kathleen Gage
It's wonderful that we're able to connect, seemingly at the oddest moments. I had a chance encounter with an old friend from high school in a city on the other side of the planet.
Does that prove a higher power at work in our lives? No. Does it make us WANT to believe in a higher power? Yes. Coincidence is the oddest thing, and our pattern-seeking minds insist that coincidence cannot be anything but calculated. But intellectual honesty compels us to admit that such events are NOT honest proof of anything except, well, coincidence.
It is enough for me to acknowledge that the garden is beautiful without demanding that there must be faeries at the bottom of it.
Posted by: SpaceGhoti | May 08, 2008 at 10:28 PM
So what about all the other times you say somebody you knew again? Really now, that's actually quite sad.
Now it took you 2 years, of both of you living in the same area to coincidentally run into each other. This would be more convincing... if it wasn't EUGENE in Oregon. I've been there, it's not that big at all. And every little detail you give, I can make a completely rational explanation for instead of this BS mystical divine intervention deal.
Just the other day, I was driving down the road where I live, and I saw a girl I asked out 5 years ago. That's it, I just saw her in her car driving the other way, nothing else happened. I live in a city with a population of over a million. Coincidence. That is all.
Furthermore, you think some divine being intervened in your life to simply meet a person you've been without for a long time? It takes a very sick person to think things like this. Why wouldn't this divine being intervene to save lives? To help others? To do some actual bloody good? No, the divine are looking after you, doing very insignificant coincidental things--ignoring people who actually need help.
"Life is always offering us amazing experiences if we choose to view them this way"
You know the real problem with this statement? That you don't actually do this. No, instead of viewing the situation as an amazing happening, you explain it away that some divine being is working for you. In other words, you think it's more amazing that the divine being was supposedly helping you, then see the joy of the action itself. And that, is sad.
Posted by: GMNightmare | June 08, 2009 at 02:16 AM
The beauty of life is we are free to view it as we wish. Have a blessed day.
Kathleen
Posted by: Kathleen Gage | June 08, 2009 at 05:27 AM