Coincidences 2

I would give anything to read a list of all the strange coincidences I have experienced during the course of my life. Sadly, I’ve forgotten most of them to the depths of time. Which is why I have finally started to write them down when they happen. Though I must recall the sad truth that I have forgotten so many mind-blowingly unlikely coincidences, at least I can take some comfort in knowing that recording a few is better than not recording any. Today comes the second installment in the series.

By day I am a teacher, as you can see from the Education section, and these days I’m doing a lot of tutoring. My oldest student is a Vietnamese man in his 40s. Teaching him is easy because he prepares everything that he wants to be taught and I just have to go in and help him with pronunciation. For the first few lessons, he had me teaching him how to sing English language songs from the 70s and 80s, like disco group Boney M and pop single “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul“. Lately, he has really been trying to get all the phonemes of English down, focusing on mastering the sounds that aren’t found in Vietnamese, like j, p, th, and z. It was the lesson he had prepared for today that was the coincidence.

After studying animals for a while, he took out another vocabulary list, one with the names of fruit. It was a list of all the fruits in Vietnamese translated into English. In the margin of the paper I read where he had printed out the list from. Interopia.com. I realized I had never told this particular student about my site. He had just randomly found my Encyclopedia of Vietnamese Fruit, printed it out and brought it to class without ever realizing he was showing it to the very creator of that list and owner of that site.

I’d call that a coincidence.

Coincidences 1

My whole life there have been so many moments that were so coincidental that my mind was immediately blown.  When they happened I usually dwelled on them for minutes, hours, or days. Each of them on their own seemed unlikely to happen in any life, but all of them taken together seemed even more unbelievable. If I had made a complete list of these coincidences, it would be an amazing read. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a habit of recording them, and I forgot most of them after a few days.

But not anymore.

From now on, whenever one occurs, I will make note of it here. Since I plan on keeping this site for the rest of my life, in a few decades time there should be a pretty crazy list of coincidences collected. It will also be interesting to hear from all of you about the coincidences that occur in your lives.

Once, when I was about 10 years old, my parents were going to have some friends over for dinner. Half an hour before their arrival, the phone rang. Keep in mind this was in the days before Caller ID, so we didn’t even know who was calling. Immediately, I said “It’s probably them saying they can’t come.” I don’t know why I said that, but it turned out to be true. Either the husband or the wife had suddenly taken ill, and they couldn’t come. My young mind couldn’t believe I had predicted it.

Just a few days ago, I was on my computer. While some of my favorite sites were loading up, I checked to see which of my contacts were online. I noticed my brother had sent me a one-word message. Samsara, it said. I replied Cool, not really knowing what he was talking about. I simply knew it was a Buddhist term. I went back to my browser, and the very first page I saw was from a torrent site. My eyes immediately honed in on the word Samsara. I couldn’t believe it. My brother’s message and my viewing of that site had come within seconds of each other, and before then I had heard nothing about Samsara, the new movie from the makers of Baraka. It just seems like it was meant to happen, especially considering the theme of the movie. I still haven’t seen the film, but I know I must as soon as possible.

According to the book The Celestine Prophecy, these crazy coincidences are like lights that guide us through life. It will pay off to notice them, remember them, and follow them. I will keep you posted on the next one I experience. Let me know about yours.