synchronicity

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

Actually Im glad to pass on any messages! ⚘

[Petra]

LOL!

[Ellen]

I love reading about your experiences with synchronicity. So far, I don't think I've had any moments like this but maybe some day.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

That is hard to bekieve Ellie. You have always seemed like an intuitive, sensitive and observant soul. Synchronicities are the tiny events that occur in the overlap of worlds. You have to be looking to notice. It helps to pay attention to yor attention! )O)yes

[Ellen]

I like the idea of "pay[ing] attention to [my] attention"! So that's what I'll focus on.

[Blixa]

I'm not sure I can safely say that I've experienced synchronicity first-hand; usually when I read something it's because I fail a weirdly strong urge to do so. Perhaps I just read what I do as the mood takes me, which leads to what might appear to be scattered Goodreads and Rateyourmusic ratings (indeed, someone once glanced at my Rateyourmusic scores and said that there appears to be seemingly genreless fluctuation).

However, there was one experience that perhaps might be considered synchronicity; I first read Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant during a particularly severe episode of seasonal depression. I'd been warned against it, but obstinate bastard that I am I read it during what has up to this point been the most miserable winter and the lowest low of my life, and found some measure of solace in them.

It's a fantasy series that's largely about despair and the various ways people react to it; I'm still conflicted about its title character, and the misery almost hit too close to home at times, but somehow I found them bizarrely uplifting, and it's one of the few books and series where it's left my wondering if I'd be the person I am now if I hadn't read them.

[Ellen]

I love these stories! I hope some day to add one of my own. I think it's probably true that I just don't notice when it happens.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

Day before yesterday i turned the radio on just in time to hear the announcement for the piece about to be played: Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsorov. I settled in, opened my book and about a page in, on p66 in fact it reads: now we hear the ominous Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.
I must be on track!

[Petra]

That's almost spooky, Magdelanye! What a wonderful coincidence.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

this is not exactly a synchronicity but even spookier to me.
Yesterday I articulated my clear wish to speak with Patricia before deciding which course to apply for. That night I saw a little notice for a little subgroup I had decided not to join. Could hardly believe it but this morning I showed up at 7 and I got in, there were only 3 participants plus Patricia sitting in for the usual facilitator so it was like a miracle and a conformation.

In not sure how clear this is bit its huge for me so needed to share

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

how about this: on June 9 I was reading a short story by Monique Proulx and came to this statement:
on a nice June ninth like this one...well he was up to different things but I thought it was noteworthy

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

noticing the last post here was last year on my birthday. It seems the synchronicities have dwindled to word play...the radio will give me the same word as I'm writing it. Music features as well if not as often.
Yesterday, with a dozen pages left to read of Glory, the stupendous tour de force by Noviolet Batawayo, I put the book down to calm myself a bit and made some tea. I had turned the radio off for the news, switched it on again coming back into the room with tea. It was Errol Nazarath introducing his show Frequencies, a favourite show of mine.
It was no surprise then that he started out with an African song but what was surprising was that I recognized some of the words, from the book! The song mentions place
names and people and events that I have been reading about.
It was perfect to listen to that song which indeed turned out be Zimbabwean as i read the last pages.

[Petra]

What a wonderful story! I like this a lot. That's a strong connection between program and book. Nice!

[Ellen]

Magdelanye, that's fabulous--I love it!

Now I have to go read Glory!

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

Yes Ellie, and Petra too
I believe there is an audio version as well. I was skeptical going in but quickly won over.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

So I've just has cataract surgery for my right eye.
I borrowed an audiobook, Zero K by Don deLillo. Last night I listened to the first CD and when I got back from my checkup I crawled back into bed and put on the 2nd cd- which starts off with one of the characters recalling her experience of cataract surgery on her right eye

[Petra]

LOL....that is a coincidence! I hope it put you at ease to know that this character is doing well after having the surgery done.
Hang in there, Magdelanye. You'll feel a lot better in a day or two. Snuggle under the blankets until then.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

i think this qualifies as a reading synchronicity
Two utterly different books, one fiction and the other Patrick Leigh Fermor s travels, on the same day referring to The Pied Piper of Hamelin

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

This may not be a synchronicity but it is a similar kind of slide.
Today started Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates. Its a bit uncanny how much this is echoing the Ali Smith I just read. But that's not it.
I have been going through my old notebooks containing all my notes of the last decade or so, Just now I pulled out a notebook and opened it at random--the date on the cover was smudged and I wondered what year it covered. Okay it's probably not synchronicity, more like senility, but the page, rather in the middle of the book was an entry for Hazards of time Travel and my notes. It is not listed as read but here was proof I read this back in 2016. And what are the odds that I'd find this pertinent information at this moment?

[Petra]

Eerie and cool!

I just read a book, too (Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions), that it turns out I've read before (in 2023!!!) and I have no recollection of it. I found that very weird indeed.
Good thing was that I enjoyed it the second time around, as much as it seems like I enjoyed it originally. LOL.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

LOL indeed
In your case the hidden gifts were thoroughly hidden! I'm glad you are enjoying it again.

With a bit more digging around I found my old review of The Hazards of Time Travel on GR and it appears it was 2019 I read it. That's due to Amazon not marking a book as read if its a different edition.

[Magdelanye, Senior Flight Attendant]

is this synchronicity or just a close cousin?
I just finished reading Juice by Tim Winton, quite a departure for a writer so embedded in place.
I had to look up the word katabasis which he uses twice. Should I have been so surprised (after all I did order it from the library as soon as I knew R.F. Kuang had a new novel out; but that was long ago) at the library the next day there it was, Katabasis, the new Kuang