Synchronicity and Stories

We had the funniest thing happen this weekend. We were at our neighbor's pig roast, which is sort of like a block party back on Long Island except we don't have blocks out here in the country, so our friends throw open their farm to family and friends, roast a big pig, and everyone brings side dishes and drinks to share. Hubby and I had walked back to the shade of a pecan tree behind the house to watch the kickball game going on among the teens and young adults. It was a lot of fun. It had gotten very hot and sticky, and soon a young mom brought out a rubber-duck shaped swimming pool for her toddler. She placed it under the shade of the pecan tree and her son helped her settle this adorable baby girl in a gingham dress and white bonnet into the wading pool. The baby squealed with delight and we watched as the brother tenderly poured water over her head to keep her cool in the 90+ degree heat. She seemed more intent on drinking the water from the bucket than pouring it over herself, but her brother tried very hard to show her how to pour the water herself. She just gurlged and cooed and splashed the water merrily. She was a pretty little thing and absolutely content to sit her pool in the shade and splash around while the adoring adults watched and delighted in her antics.

"Do you know who that little girl is?" the woman sitting beside me asked.

"No," I said. "Who is she?"

"Do you remember a story from the Farmville Herald (our town newspaper) a few months ago about a father who delivered his own baby on a front lawn because they couldn't get to the hospital in time?"

I did remember the story. At the time, we marveled at how quick-thinking both parents were.  He had been driving his wife to the hospital, and the baby came before they got there. He'd delivered the baby on somebody's front lawn, much to the homeowner's astonishment!

"That the baby," she said.

I smiled in delight to see the cherub splashing merrily away. It's amazing to me how often such coincidences happen in my life. I'll read something in the paper about total strangers, then months later will meet the people involved. In fact, it happens to me so frequently that a friend actually accused me of making it up once! She thought I was concocting those things, but I never do. I just seem to attract synchronicity into my life.

Many people talk about the "Law of Attraction" that was made popular in the movie and the book The Secret.  Really though, I think my gift for synchronicity is simply awareness.  I remember stories; I remember and mentally file away all sorts of random things that interest me. And I have heard it said that what you fix your attention on you do somehow draw into your consciousness, although sometimes things like meeting the little baby from the story are just coincidences.

God breezes, synchronicity....whatever you call it, even thinking about that little girl in the pretty dress and bonnet splashing around in her wading pool makes me smile today!