One day in 2023 I found this bit of jewelry on the ground, so I posted about it on my town’s Facebook page, hoping the owner would contact me. I had a deep chuckle as I picked it up and I felt like St. Anthony was goofing around with me. Was he saying “I’m lost, No, I’m found”? I wondered. I also considered how this item could be meaningful to someone. Had they worn it for years hoping for something to come back?
As it were, no one spoke up to claim it, and it has since folded into the darker creases of my home – lost again.
St Anthony is the patron saint of recovering lost items. My Catholic aunt once suggested I pray to him when I lost something, and it worked like a charm.
⬅️ Here’s the charm.
Randomness: conversations across uncharted territories
These random metaphysical ‘conversations’ can be meaningful (and even enjoyable), if we let them be. A wrong number asking for a name that’s familiar, finding something, books that fall of a shelf – literally begging to be picked up, and unexpected occurrences happen all the time, when we pay attention.
I see these experiences as a nexus between soul and science; inner self and the outer world; imagination and form. Random events are usually dismissed by science as meaningless, but that may be because science doesn’t yet know how to test for this type of connectivity yet. Just because we can’t prove a cause, doesn’t mean the effect isn’t meaningful. And if cause and effect happen in different realms, it may be impossible to link them in a classic scientific way. This is where feelings and intuition can help you discern the meaning instead.
“Random” also has a connotation of quirky meaninglessness. In my case, finding a charm of St Anthony gave me an ironic chuckle, and also an illustration to write this post about something that matters to me (unexpected occurrences), so while quirky, it was definitely not meaningless.
I think we can miss a deep experience of wonder if we dismiss these kinds of experiences as unimportant, or downplay them by calling them just random. Synchronicities have always been deeply important in human experience. They have ignited religions, interrupted best laid plans, confounded the curious, and sparked great art.
If we want our physical lives and spiritual/mindful lives to function congruently, randomness and synchronicity could instead be seen like a pat on the back, or a little reward, telling us we are onto something for the wholeness of our lives. If nothing else, these moments provide entertainment and a sense of wonder, or if you are lucky like me, a solid laugh too.
Questions:
- Reflect on a time a random or unexpected occurrence gave you pause.
- What specifically happened? Can you recall what happened right before that?
- What did this experience mean to you?
- Did you have a sense where it came from?
- What decisions did you make after that about how to conduct you life?
