Patterns

Theres been a lot going on in my life, on multiple fronts, these last few months. As a result things have left me a little unnerved and plenty absent-minded (I could start up a separate comic blog to talk about my absent-mindedness and its crazy impacts). Enough has been happening to draw the attention of my friends. With the result that I received a concerned call from our minister yesterday, wondering if I needed a spiritual tune-up. An offer that, of course, I gladly accepted. We had breakfast this morning before service. Our minister, is indeed a gem of a person and it was a great comfort talking to her. Most importantly, she pointed out in abstract terms the different ways my life had been influenced though not radically changed in the past few months. In a way it corroborated my recent reflections about emerging patterns in my life, leading me to wonder:

Is the Universe sending me certain signals that I need to heed?

I am usually given to living my life in a some-what organized fashion, an organization that is usually bounded by the daily jumble, toss and tumble. Lately, I have been standing back and in re-evaluating the bigger picture I am beginning to find certain emerging patterns.

For example, how specific topics of conversation arise on different occasions in completely different companies, without my own initiative, and how each such conversation seems to be a continuation of the previous one. When I think of such discussions, the people involved in the discussion become a blur. The only thing that remains with me is the harmony and easy flow in the discussion sequence. Its as if, I am having a conversation with the Universal Consciousness, and the Universe is engaging me over and over again through friends and strangers, challenging me to look beyond the obvious.

Of course, the cynic in me wrinkles the nose (we have only one!) and says ... "Nonsense! You will find patterns when you are looking for one." Which is true ... but then why would we want to look for a specific pattern? An untimely death of a friend, a personal experience that took me close to being severly injured if not dead, the unexplained deaths of at least 2 friendships, spiritual deaths at work and other such episodes that have brought abrupt endings without closure seem to be coinciding with conversations that pertain to 'the passage' often... and with people who have no idea about these happenings in my life. Well... thats when I start identifying a pattern, and duely find one.

Whether its the Universe engaging me in a conversation or me consciously connecting dots on the slate of my experiences, there certainly is an emergent pattern that cannot be ignored.