I believe in synchronicity. It happens all the time in my life. I probably notice it about 1% of the time…if that.

We left Ann Arbor with the camper and the dogs yesterday to find a little wild space to hang out in for a few days. Less than an hour from Adena’s place in Ann Arbor we found a state recreation area that is pretty much deserted because it is not a weekend. When we arrived, no one was camping here. We saw signs of the holiday weekend that just ended…beer bottles and other trash tossed on the ground at some sites. We found our sweet quiet place near the lake and JC leaped over the hand rails on the long pier to swim in the lake that had a NO SWIMMING sign. I love watching a 58 year old vegan guy run along the pier and shoot his whole body over the 3 foot railing.

Within an hour of being here, I could feel my mind clear and the stress I have been feeling melt away. Instead of our usual movie, we read books to the sound of crickets and geese or soft classical music on the stereo. The dogs hung out in the mud outside the door, happy for the freedom of no fence and all the possibilities out there.

In this kind of slow quiet, I can notice synchronicity.

In the evening a Westfalia van came driving through. The guy waived as he passed and camped on the far end of the loop where we cant hear or see each other.

After a quiet long night of sleep, the dogs and I walked to the outhouse and pump and met the Westfalia guy there. The only other person in the whole place and within 5 minutes we figured out we have mutual friends and familiar spots in Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Mexico. Byron is a potter in Detroit and seems to be “our tribe”…our kind of people.

He started talking about a place for sale near Silver City in the Gila. Faywood Hotsprings. Hundreds of acres and a hot springs in the one area of New Mexico that both JC and I can get excited about. Here is where synchronicity enters. The chances of us being here: slim. There were lots of camping places we could have gone. The chances of Byron coming to the water pump right when I was going by it: slim. I had to have my morning poo at just the right time and it had to end at just the right time and Bean had to scratch on the door of the outhouse and delay me a bit because she wanted me to open the door so she could sit at my feet in the stinky outhouse. Byron had to sleep just the right amount of time and then decide to get water at just the right time.

Synchronicity works like this: I am going to research the possibility of Faywood Hot Springs being purchased by a group of people wanting to start Vegan Village. I may find out that it is not perfect for our needs, but in the process I may come across something else that is perfect for that or I may come across a place that would just be great for backpacking or who knows what else.

It is a bit like the “hint hunts” I used to have with the girls (Sanna and Saga) in Sweden when I lived there. I would write out clues on little slips of paper. One paper slip might say: “A place where they call a friend a mate”. They would then think of Australia and hopefully think to go to the next clue taped to the Australia drawing on the glass globe of the world.

That is how this synchronicity thing works. I trust that Byron has just given me a clue that will take me to the next clue. The trick is to trust and be present. In everyday life, a major clue can pass by unnoticed. I trust that I am supposed to research Faywood Hot Springs. It may be that the minute I sit down to research it, the next clue appears. Or I may have to wait until we go research New Mexico spots and then the next clue will appear as we head toward Faywood Hot Springs. It may be that we discover something on that outing that makes us both want to take Silver City off of our HOME radar or leads us to an even better option than Faywood. That is where the trust comes in. You cannot tell how the dots connect until you look back at a bunch of them. I think this is why I love movies like Sliding Doors or Happenstance or Run Lola Run. I love how life can take turns based on the smallest details and our noticing or not noticing them.

I also love how things that seem like negatives are part of the puzzle and end up being positives. The places or situations or people we want to get away from, take us to the next place. I thought that my feeling stressed in Ann Arbor the last few days was a negative. My wrists were hurting from too much computer work for Vegfund and I was tired of highway noise and endless tasks. Ideally, I would have just been happy to be there and accept it all, right? Like the book I am reading now “How to Want What You Have” (found at a garage sale in Ann Arbor)….I should just want things as they are, right? Well, yes and no. Things as they were a few days ago also included my body and mind yelling at me to get to a slower quieter place for a few days. Part of what I had was the situation I was in and part of what I had was the choice to be somewhere else….so why not go with the choice to be in quiet wild space. That is not the same as longing for what I don’t have when it was in fact an easy choice in front of me..

Maybe a year from now I will be living in a place and be able to look back to the day in Ann Arbor when I was stressed and wanted out of there and feel grateful for it because it pushed me here which opened up the possibility of talking with Byron, which led me to research a place which led me to another place and on and on for an entire year, until I ended up standing in Utah (who knows) wondering how a bad day in Michigan got me there.

It is this kind of synchronicity that got me to visit New Mexico for the first time in the early seventies. Years earlier I was in an international dance group and would drive to the weekly dances with the same couple every time. I cannot even tell you their names right now. On one of those short drives to the dance, the woman turned to me and said, “You would love Taos New Mexico.” I had never heard of Taos and had never thought of visiting New Mexico. Years later, when a relationship ended in disaster and I wanted to leave town, I could not think of where to go. Then I remembered what that woman had said to me. I packed my little rucksack and hitchhiked to Taos with my cat. When I got there it was 2 am. I slept in a field outside town. In the morning I woke up and walked into town and noticed a flier stuck on a utility pole for a dance class that morning at 10 am. I found the community center, set my rucksack in the corner, pulled out my sleeping bag and let the cat settle in there. After the dance class people made local announcements. The class had about 15 people. Two of the people made announcements that got me a place to live and a place to work within one hour of landing in town. Years earlier, one women turning around and telling me I would like a town led me to a place I will always call home.