“To ascribe an intention to chance is a thought which is either the height of absurdity or the depth of profundity–according to the way we understand it.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
When you travel all the way to Guatemala on a spiritual whim (one might more politely call it a quest) in search of clarity about your soul’s path and meet by seeming chance or coincidence someone seeking what you are creating and who offers to be your first client, that quite simply is the beauty of synchronicity….
Intrigued by my encounter with synchronicity, I delved deeper wanting to understand its meaning, and began reading Carl Jung, who intimately explored the concept and coined the term synchronicity to explain “meaningful coincidence.” And then just the other day, I came across a book in the library entitled Soul Moments, a delightful collection of real life stories about synchronicity by Phil Cousineau.
Cousineau describes an experience of synchronicity as “marked by elegance, symmetry, vividness, suddenness, poetry, or a truth that speaks to the heart.” One could add the word “profound” to his list of evocative terms to echo Schopenhauer.
Of course, there are those of us who vehemently deny meaningful coincidence, claiming it to be random, pure chance or patently absurd. Chances are that synchronicity might not show itself to that person, perhaps in fear of being mocked, or if it did, the person might be carelessly dismissive. Then there are others, who are oblivious or blind to synchronicity; they have lost the ability to gaze in wonder at the world and the mystery of life. I was one of the oblivious ones not all that long ago; in fact, it’s been exactly 10 years. And that was when my life began to unfold in mysterious ways. But that’s a whole other story for another time….
It is precisely when we are lost and most vulnerable and in our deepest, darkest moments that synchronicity most often shows up. Cousineau suggests that these synchronous moments are “the times of sheer grace when an outward event coincides with inner changes and it feels as if our very destiny is affected.” We receive an outward sign or an answer, sometimes that seems ridiculous and other times that is definitive and sublime, which informs us of what we must go do, often healing us in the process. And thus begins the unfolding of our souls.
If you have a personal story of synchronicity you would like to share, please send it along to nicole@soulscapecoaching.com as I would love to read it! And if you are still one of us who does not believe or is blind to it, perhaps synchronicity will come upon you in such a way that you are seized and gently shaken by the moment and see its grace.
This post is dedicated to a dear friend, who just yesterday shared a personal story of healing synchronicity, and who just happens to have known Phil Cousineau many years ago. To the beauty of synchronicity and her soul’s unfolding.