Synchronicity: A Precocious Moment in a Summer Meadow

Hmmm, where does
synchronicity begin and metaphor end, or vice versa?

I first envisioned
framing this post around the old adage timing
is everything. But as I turned the idea around in my mind and examined it
from different angles, I realized what I was really contemplating was the
phenomenon of synchronicity.

The official
definition of synchronicity is: The
simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have
no discernible causal connection. While technically accurate, that is too
clinical for my liking.

I did a bit of
Google sleuthing and learned that the concept was first introduced by
analytical psychologist Carl Jung as early as the 1920’s. He theorized that
events are meaningful coincidences if
they occur with no causal relationship but appear to be meaningfully related.

Interesting, but still
too clinical for my taste. I prefer to think of synchronicity as precocious
moments when the universe tires of logic and lets its whimsical side take
control. Let’s put this unplanned event
together with that random occurrence and see what it happens. … Aha! Now that
is something to behold!

The photograph at
the top of this post is by my definition an example of synchronicity at work.

The first element
at play is the Comma butterfly which
has only recently emerged. All its colours and markings – including the striking
white comma on the outer wing – are newly minted and flawless to a degree that
can only last a matter of days in the life of a butterfly.

The second element
is the pear-shaped, broad green leaf with its serrated edges and spidery white
veins. It too is in the full bloom its existence that that will all too soon
pass as the heat of high summer begins to drain it of its vitality.

The third element
is the lighting – the sun’s rays landing in at the exact right angle to bring
out the colours and shadings in sharp contrast while also casting a mirror
image shadow of the butterfly on the leaf that plays host to it.

I would like to be
able to say that I spent hours prowling the meadow following this one
butterfly, studying the lighting, looking for the right leaf, and waiting for
all the elements to come together. But that would be a fabrication. I do not
have anything resembling that kind of patience.

The truth is that
the universe felt whimsical and created this precocious moment. Was it
coincidence that I happened along to capture it? I think not. I believe that I
– a lover of winged wonders who happens to carry a camera with him in the field
– was the fourth element that the universe factored into the equation to
complete the moment of synchronicity.

Metaphors have an
element of whimsy in them. There is a dash of synchronicity in a good metaphor.
And this instance of synchronicity in a summer meadow has a dash of metaphor in
it.

I was fortunate to
be a player in this aha! moment. Was
it because I am a weaver of metaphors?

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

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