Hearth, Heart & Home: Adventures in Pagan Parenting

Raven (yes, really), a pagan, homeschooling mother of two -- one teen, one tot -- shares her adventures in parenting from a pagan perspective. Watch her juggle work, education, parenting, cooking, gardening, and . . . how many balls are in the air now? Sometimes they fall, and sometimes she learns from her mistakes. You can, too.

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Synchronicity

I don't believe in coincidences.
I do believe in synchronicity.

Though I'm not one to see meaning in everything, and I'm skeptical about fate, the little events of life don't seem trivial to me the way most others view them.

Patterns have always been fascinating to me -- patterns in nature, mathematics, puzzles, and everything else that follows some form of repetition.  Combine this with a determination to honor my intuition, and I began to observe some years ago, a level of synchronicity in my life that went beyond a rational explanation and exceeded the rate for ordinary coincidence.

Much about these synchronous patterns are mundane, and this is what makes them interesting.  

It happens in little ways: yesterday, on a whim, we ate ham and cheddar sandwiches, something we rarely eat, and then we streamed a show in which someone died choking on a ham and cheese, and later in the evening, someone mentioned their favorite type of sandwich on a social networking site--a ham and cheddar.

Now, I don't gather from this that there's an omen from a ham and cheese, but I do get the sense that life is flowing along well.  It's as if we're all a little more tuned into one another, or I'm tuned in with the flow of the world.

It comes in all forms: an uncommon or archaic word suddenly being used in disparate situations, a topic or theme focused on in a variety of media outside of a shared trend or time period, or an everyday item suddenly prominent in the multifaceted areas of my life.

As I mentioned before, I don't see these little events as an omen or portent.  I don't work hard to read meaning into the ordinary, but as a pattern in my life, I've come to trust these moments as an indication I'm part of a greater network or consciousness.  And being aware of these emerging patterns adds to my ability to listen to and honor my intuitive inner voice.  

After all, whether we call it an observant, subconscious part of my brain, or my higher self, paying attention to it and heeding its advice has prevented a lot of pain and suffering in my adult life.

And lest this sounds too much like "A Beautiful Mind," my daughter has started noticing the patterns as well.  For a week, she kept yelling at our monitor every time someone mentioned the word "imperative," because for a whole week, every show we streamed or watched on DVD, every article she read, and several conversations she overheard contained that word.  

There are times when we receive messages that we need to heed, signs of something coming, but sometimes we are simply a part of the synchronicity of life.  Paying attention to the mundane can make us more aware when something big needs to be heard.

 

An Exercise:

Take two weeks to become more aware of the little events in your life.  Record in a journal or share with a friend the small, amusing coincidences that pop up.

Spend some time in meditation or quiet each day thinking about the living beings of Earth as a whole unit, imagine that living force as a being with electric energy, liquids flowing, a heartbeat.  Allow yourself to be carried on one of the currents of energy or water, observing with all your senses what occurs around you as you pass by.

After the first day, did you notice anything unusual?  How about at the end of the first week?  Do coincidences seem to happen more often?

If after two weeks nothing has changed in your perceptions, no worries.  Let it go, and flow instead with your life on its course.  And if you do gain something from this exercise, take time to honor the observant part of you, and heed it when you receive more than just a synchronous "Hello, all is well."

 

Image "Fractal Art" courtesy Alexa Szlávics under a Creative Commons license.

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Raven lives in a forest with her two homeschooled children, partner, and several demanding cats. She enjoys performing, cooks a mean burger, and is obsessed with farming, but has yet to adopt a goat. Her publications are listed at SatyrsGarden.com.

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