Synchronicity

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.”
- Paulo Coelho

I was once interviewed for a server's position by a young woman, who should not have been conducting interviews. At the time I did not know that her managerial role was to be nominal in the absence of the regular manager, who had taken a two-week hiatus in the Caribbean. Regardless, I was hired because on my resume I listed Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist among my favourite books. I kept the job for two years, and it provided me with the necessary experience to obtain future employment over the next decade.

If you've not ever read The Alchemist the synchronicity of my wee tale may, to you, appear elusive. "A fable about following your dream," reads Coelho's subtitle. The Alchemist is concerned with fate (vs. free will), love, luck, spiritual enlightenment, omens, and personal enlightenment (Wikipedia).

Coelho implicitly maintains that the concept of coincidence is just that, a concept. Our lives are not comprised of randomly isolated, and disconnected events; our moments are significantly intertwined. We exist within a universal complexity, which understands us more than we understand It.

Coelho addresses the pursuance of individual destiny as something integral to intrinsic fulfillment. I agree. I also agree with his analysis of fear.

"People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them."

Personally, I won't live in fear because I don't believe anyone can. It is an oxymoron. You may die in fear, but you can't live in it.

Fear is death; confrontation is the only means of annihilating fear. There is no heroism in unhappiness, there is only sorrow.

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

No, I do not think that the universe conspired to aid me in some misconstrued mission to become a waitress, but I do think that there was a touch of serendipity at work in my acquisition of a long-ago interview.

In the composition of my resume, so many years ago, I was advised by a friend to omit the section in which I outlined my "Personal Interests." She meant well, but I disagreed. Ultimately I was hired based upon my willingness to breach formalized protocol, and share my list of preferred readings. An apparently small decision, which has led me to where I am now in my life.

My "dream?" I wish to teach at the secondary school level. English Literature (shock me shock me...). I've been afforded the opportunity to maintain a work schedule, which allows for the scheduling of university classes, and the financial means to support myself on a few shifts a week because I garnered experience within the Industry -- because once upon a time I included The Alchemist on my resume. Is this too much a stretch for you? It is not for me.

This afternoon I decide to wax about this subject because currently, I am re-reading Homeschooling, a collection of meditative, and poignant short stories written by Canadian author, Carol Windley.

Stories laden with synchronism.