syncronicity

 Yes, I will post the first Chapter of "Carry On! Living with Uncertainty" soon.  In the meantime, here is the post on prayer that I mentioned previously on this blog.

SYNCRONICITY:  the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality —used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung.

Here we go...

Why do a group of birds gather to the same tree all at once, and then fly away at the same time?  Why isn't there anyone at the checkout counter at the store when I walk by while shopping, yet when I go to check out there are three or more people moving towards the line at the same time?  How do trends begin in the first place?  Why does one thing all-of-the-sudden appeal to lots of people all at once?  And, how does something that was wildly popular go out of style?  I'm thinking about the idea of syncronicity; particularly in relation to prayer.

How is it that I am conscious of a particular prayer being answered in one moment, and desperate for insight in another moment?  I want to believe that prayers are always being answered whether or not I am aware.  Yes, there is always something supernatural going on around me - that much I know.  Nevertheless, how much of a prayer's life is manifested in my consciousness?

Do prayers flow with syncronicity?

Are my prayers living only in my own energy field?  How can my prayer be a part of someone else's energy field without their permission?  Who or what carries a prayer between individuals' energy fields?  Millions of people and millions of energy fields - is there some kind of time or distance barrier?  Even though God is in a dimension of timelessness, our prayers' lives are part of a dimension of time.  Is there a stream of delivery for our prayers that only connects to certain relationships?  Do we step in and out of waves of other people's prayer energy without feeling them?

What I know is that we somehow answer each other's prayers.  I've had patients at the hospital tell me that I was an answer to their prayer.  I stopped in their room; I listened to their story; I accompanied them through an emotion; I was an answer to their prayer without knowing what their prayer was.  I did not hear their prayer before I stepped into their room.  Or, did I?

Did I hear something without knowing it?  Did I step through an energy field with the life of their prayer in it?  (Syncronicity?) 

I have heard some people say that they remember to say a prayer at night but often forget to say a prayer in the busy-ness of their morning.  They go about their day without thinking to pray.  Somehow this is possible for them.  I don't remember what it was like to not need help every morning.  I am supposing someone can take prayer for granted if they don't need help.

Every morning, especially for the past 14 and 1/2 years, I have needed to pray,  Even when I have questioned whether or not my prayer had a life, I somehow found myself reaching for something.  I needed, and still need, strength beyond my own.  In my experience, I have found that chronic illness requires chronic prayer.

I can't think of when I last "forgot to pray".  It's true:  I have decided to quit praying before.  But, like the main character in one of my favorite books, A Prayer for the Dying (by Stewart O'Nan), I find myself praying again.  Here is an excerpt from that book which is written in second person - incredibly unique:

"You know you won't sleep.
Why don't you pray?
You already have.
Who would have thought you'd turn bitter?  Of all people.
And so you roll over and whisper another prayer into your pillow.  Not because you're too proud to admit you're wrong.  Not because you're afraid.  Because you can't change who you are."

Me, too.  I pray because it is part of who I am.  I am experimenting with trying to feel the life of prayers - energy fields of people who might be praying.  I am trying to perceive possible answers to prayers that may not be consciously perceived.  Something happens and I think to myself, "Hey, that is an answer to prayer."  But, what about all of the things that happen in relation to the life of a prayer and I am not consciously aware of them?  Does it seem like answers to prayers move in and out of our lives like the group of birds that all land in the tree together and fly away at the same time?  Syncronicity...