I like the word “synchronicity.” Coined by Carl Jung in the 1950s to describe a meaningful relationship or connection between apparent coincidences, it combines the roots of “together” and “time.” However, let’s not get too bogged down in the definition or etymology. I like the sound of it when I say it out loud. It has a rhythm that moves like a dance in my mouth.
Synchronicity brings together occurrences that might seem unrelated, like two strangers drawn to one another on the dance floor. There, they enter the current of all the dancers. The music plays invisibly, yet moves everyone in harmony, all the dancers yielding to and carried by the vibration that resonates universally and individually. The music connects everyone, all the random people who have stepped onto the dance floor.
Like life. Life is a dance of synchronicity, everything connected, everything affecting every other thing. Some of the effects we recognize, like environmental causes for the global warming that has baked the Pacific Northwest this last week with record temperatures, sending me to sleep in the basement, and frying my poor hydrangeas. Other effects may be more subtle yet still profound, like a small kindness that lifts someone’s spirit, someone who then pays that kindness forward, and so on until the gentle ripples of that gesture reach countless unknown people.
When we are attuned to the natural rhythm of the universe, we move effortlessly, in harmony with the current of the cosmos, in step with the music of the spheres. We feel it. We also sense when we are “out of sync.” Most of us experience that from time to time, or perhaps often.
How do we move back into alignment? We can’t think our way there, or force it. When I try to make it happen, I am always a beat off. But when I listen, I can hear the song in my soul. When I yield, it guides me. When I surrender, it carries me. I experience the connection with all life in the dance of synchronicity. It is beautiful.
Every time I have become aware of a synchronicity experience, I have had an accompanying feeling that some grace came along with it. ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
This is beautiful, and dance is the perfect metaphor. The best dances flow and delight.
Since you are such a gifted and passionate dancer, Laurie, I’m not surprised that this spoke to you!
It is a lovely word that rolls off the tongue, Galen, and it denotes our oneness with creation. Beautifully expressed here.
Blessings!
Oneness with creation indeed. Thank you Martha.
Great post! I think God puts us into a lot of places and situations in which we never really know what impact we truly made. You can see a smile on someone’s face when you engage them in conversation or compliment them but then you have no idea what that interaction impacted on down the line.
So true, RCS. What might seem like a minor gesture of kindness can have a major impact on someone. I used to play a game with my kids where we would go through our day actively looking for opportunities to be kind. It made us aware of many times when we might overlook a chance to say a kind word or offer some help. Our days were so much better when we were focused on kindness. So in that way, the impact of kindness benefited everyone!