Coincidence

There's no such thing as coincidence.  I have been saying that for years and years.  That statement is not a denial of synchronicity, but rather, an attempt to add something meaningful to what might appear to be random.  Or as G.K. Chesterton famously said, "Coincidences are spiritual puns."

Earlier, I was upstairs, looking out my son's bedroom window at the woods beyond my property.  Scanning the dull brown of late March, my eyes were drawn to a splash of something orangy-red.  Finally, the first robin I'd seen!  It was large and proud and showing off in the barren landscape.  I took note, then tucked the memory away in order to move on with my day.

But of course, first I had to check Facebook.  I looked to the upper right of the screen to see whose birthday it might be today.  Robyn Lees.

There's no such thing as coincidence.  But Robyn Lees is dead.  She was lost to cancer last year, far too young, far too kind, far too good to be taken from her friends and family.  I remember writing her a letter when I learned that she'd taken a turn, but as it turned out, she was gone before the letter got to her.  In the letter, I spoke of the following spring, when I would look upon my first robin and think of her.  I love that she reminded me of my promise.  On her birthday, no less.

Was it coincidence that, years ago, when I bought my daughter a used car shortly after her father died that the license plate contained his initials?  Was it coincidence that on the first morning of my son's return home from his freshman year of college, a Great Blue Heron (his father's favorite bird) landed on the roof over his bedroom?  Oh, I could tell you story after story!  Coincidence?  No such thing.

But spiritual puns?  Robyn, who was a student of mine, a creative writer, an editor of our school's literary magazine, would appreciate the beauty of a spiritual pun!  Thank you, Robyn, for giving me something to fall in love with today!