Dear Friends,
Meaningless coincidences. Isn’t the world full of them? I’m constantly running into someone, making note of something with valid, mystic connection, and wondering about the time sequence of something that truly translates into meaningless nothing. Someone crosses my mind, and that second they answer my call or I receive an email from them; I think about someone who lives in California, and then I see them in my neighborhood in NYC, just crossing the street. I tell a story and then read a magazine article or see a movie that has the same exact plot with the same exact name or number. Or is it the other way around? But in the end of it, what does it matter? What does it all mean? It’s taken me years to contemplate this fact. And it’s taken me up until this very moment to realize that meaningless coincidences are wonderful. Even if they mean nothing, it’s the universe reminding us that even though I’m in the West Village and my thoughts are in a suburb in LA, or for my book, lost in 1964 in Westcheser, the universe is just giving us a wink and a smile. It’s saying to us, “We hear you, we know, you are doing the right thing.” The universe is saying, “Congratulations, Jessica – you’re finally living in the moment.”
Losing my mom at such a young age, I feel connected to her as well. I feel coincidences with my mother’s spirit – or does she plant them there and I’m just a sucker for spirituality? I’ll never know. But I think I do. As winter turns to spring and blossoms are finally hatched in the trees, some trees I’ve never ever seen before, my breath is stolen from me. New York is constantly stealing it. I’m quiet and lost in thought. And kind of laughing at how many times I said to myself when I was younger, “If this song comes on, then that boy likes me at school,” “If I don’t miss stepping on this crack in the sidewalk, I’ll do well in my dance recital tomorrow,” and ever still, “If a cherry blossom sprouts on my street, I will have a lucky spring.” What does that even mean? We’re constantly making bets with ourself – with the universe. We’re always hanging onto the universe, whether we “believe” in it or not. Even when people say they have “good parking karma,” “beginner’s luck,” or when my adorable Grandma Ann used to say, “You just dropped a fork – someone is talking about you!” It all amounts to the same thing: meaningless coincidences where people justify them into superstitions or trite sayings, as if there is no universe connecting us all with our thoughts, with our hearts.
You might think I have no idea what I’m saying right now, and I might not. But at least I’m living in the moment, coming to you from a very good coffee shop on the west side. Quiet the mind, and just believe. Even if it’s for a moment. You are fooling yourself if you think you already don’t.
Kisses,
Jessica
