One of my very favorite things to do is to open up the drawers of my printer cabinet every now and again. It’s just like it was when I was very young and loved going through the large old tin that my mom kept oh so many buttons in. Since there are hundreds of little odds and ends in that cabinet I often forget what tiny treasures there are inside.
And of course more are always being added and no I’m not in recovery because I can stop getting more at any time! Really. I can– honest. OK, I wouldn’t believe it either if I were you.
Taking these out and fitting all these odd and wonderful objects together is so fun and interesting. Sometimes they just connect in really cool ways I couldn’t have thought of myself. It really seems that sometimes they just were meant to be that way however unlikely it would have seemed before they were brought in close proximity.
The thought occurred to me today that this is how my life has been. Just like playing around with the found objects to see how they might fit together, at first any given situation I find myself in really seems so random like we’re all just bobbing around in the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life.
I go on that way thinking that while I’m bobbing around out there I’m somehow moving in a certain direction with my intentions. And I do believe that. I mean I try to stay positive and when I do some really awesome things often happen. But I don’t actually think that I’m “in charge” or “in control” as I go here and there and do this and that. Rather it’s more that I’m somewhat affecting things as I bob randomly about. Perhaps that doesn’t make sense at all and maybe seems contradictory.
Anyway, it seems to me we go on like that until sometimes we bump into each other and discover some astonishing coincidence that affects something else and then puts us on a slightly different path. When you’re going a really long distance (like through your whole life) and are moved slightly off course this can be significant no? Anyway, really astonishing coincidences happen to me all the time so by now I suppose it seems “normal” until I stop to think about it like I’m doing right now.
Even for someone who is used to these things happening nearly every day, some things that have happened have really freaked me. I can handle isolated coincidences quite well by now. Like if I had a really odd dream it wouldn’t really bother me. But if it were a recurring dream that would definitely get my attention.
So with that in mind I sometimes wonder how exactly was it that my dear friend Marly just happened to be in the same business law class with me and we instantly hit it off and became great friends? Not such a big coincidence to be in the same class with someone that you like though. That happens every day right!
I think our friendship was probably cemented forever the day we discovered that the play ground friends our children were always talking about were in fact each other’s children. We didn’t even know until then that our kids went to the same school which was several towns away from the school we were both attending. Not to mention that they were all really good friends.
But it didn’t stop there. It became quite sobering when we each had exciting news that we had planned to move to a new place that very next weekend. What are the odds of that?!?! To both be moving on the very same weekend! Perhaps you know what’s coming next. But at the time we certainly didn’t. Yes, we moved into the same condos and were living just across the way from each other. Everyone there thought we were sisters too because they thought we looked so much alike.
Then about a month later we each drove home with a new car– the other having no idea that she wasn’t the only one car shopping that day.
We thought perhaps because we were both single parents that was the reason it seemed we were destined to meet so that we could be a support system for each other.
I could go on about this because these types of crazy coincidences between Marly and I continued to happen and at some point we just learned to accept it (or if not just try not to think about it).
One final interesting note I’ll share though is that one Halloween Marly’s brother sent a special invitation to both of us to bring our kids to his mountain ranch for a big party. And that’s where I met my future husband.
Fast forward to the next Halloween, I insisted that Marly go to a Halloween party with a mutual friend (she tends to stay home a lot). I offered to have a movie night for all the kids so she’d have no excuse about not finding a sitter. Later that evening she met her future husband at that party. : )
And what about all the coincidences and happenstance that we aren’t even aware of? The way we can touch each other’s lives, affect so many things and never have the slightest idea the impact we’ve had. Could it be that we are much more like those found objects in the drawer than we realize?
It’s funny to think of this but what if we’re taken out of the drawer and played with just to see how we might fit together and then we’re placed back in the drawer for a while? Then at some point our drawer opens once again and we are connected to someone else in a way we couldn’t have imagined.
Judy said,
January 28, 2009 at 3:12 pm
What wonderful drawers! And filled with great objects just waiting to be part of a fine new project. And surrounded by thoughtful, exciting and happy words. I’m glad we were taken out and played with at the same time, so we could create some long threads connecting us forever.
—————–
Me too, Dear Friend!!! : )
–Kerin
kathy mcelroy said,
January 29, 2009 at 5:12 am
I keep trinkets in my printer tray also. I have the same hot & cold handles. I love looking at all your found objects!
remnants said,
January 29, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I love looking at that all the cool thingies people use in their art and peering into their studios and/or homes is great fun too!
If you like this sort of thing there is a site that glimpses into the personal spaces of creatives. This site ROCKS!!! It’s at http://www.theselby.com
fun fun fun!!! : )
– Kerin
Kim Rae Nugent said,
February 3, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for sharing your treasures and story. I am so looking forward to meeting you in person in October
Seth said,
February 6, 2009 at 11:56 pm
This is one tremendous cabinet of curiosities here. And I often wonder the same as you about coincidence and synchronicity. Great post.
Laume said,
February 8, 2009 at 10:04 pm
That’s pretty similar to the way I see the world – although I’d use a walking instead of bobbing analogy – LOL. I have these synchronicities happen to me all the time. These coincidences that I don’t believe were simply coincidences. Like, after my divorce, I was determined to stick it out in the town I was living in. Then one day, just driving along in the car, for no reason at all, out of the blue, I made a sudden decision to move to the big city two hours away. It felt absolutely like what I had to do. And I did it. Within the first month that I lived there, I met my now husband of almost twenty years. YEars later I noticed a date on some papers I was sorting, it was the date his first wife had filed for divorce. The date struck me as important for some reason – it just nagged at me. And I got this suspicion. I looked back through my old journals and yes, that was the day I’d decided I had to move.
Or, I have a very dear friend. I feel like we’ve been friends our entire lives, we live three states away from each other now but still stay in touch and get together whenever we can manage it. We didn’t meet in person until I was in my midtwenties and she was just past her 30th birthday. But we discovered that we had lived near each other our entire lives, moving all over the country at the same time, sometimes literally living on different ends of the same STREET as each other, even before we knew each other.
I could go on, but this is a comment, not a post – LOL.
remnants said,
February 9, 2009 at 12:01 am
Well who sez you can’t make a post out of a comment!!! : )
ThingFinder said,
February 9, 2009 at 9:07 pm
wonderfull stuff!
checkout somethingsifind.wordpress.com
jane said,
March 6, 2009 at 11:15 pm
This gave me chills halfway through and that was BEFORE I got to the part about you guys meeting your future husbands. It was all downhill from there. I loved it, and thank you so much for writing it all out. It meant more to me this particular week — day, in fact! — than you could ever know — because I am way too blown away to write about it yet. Anyhoo, I think meeting YOU was one of those serendipitous synchronicity heaped-studio-table things too. Your kind words here and there have moved me into a new space of consciousness about my work, and some other stuff too. Seriously.
Your studio drawers are AMAZING and you are way more organized than I will ever be. Which opens up to me the entirely unconsidered possibility that the studio spiders might like me to tidy up a few things down in the Flux ‘n Pickle so they can see what they’re doing a little better. God! What if being an artist doesn’t mean being disorganized anymore than it means wearing a black beret? Where does that leave me? The mind reels!
remnants said,
March 6, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Dear Jane ~ One of the very best things I could hope for is to help other artists in some way. That is one reason I’m writing the book for North Light when I really could be doing a kazillion other things. I can’t even begin to say what it means to learn that very thing has happened with you.
Keith Lo Bue was the person who helped me to that extent. It was like the flood gates opened so now it is about pay back for that gift. I hope I will some day be able to find out what exciting things are happening with you!!! Please put me on the list of people to tell when it has all sunk in and you are able to share it. Whatever it is I am so so SO happy for you.
xxx
Kerin