Sylvia's Journal

Looking for a particular quote from Goethe about synchronicity, I found so many (synchronicity at work?) that I wondered whether I should not simply start to read all his books.

A number of encounters and coincidence have swarmed together this week and elevated me to a different space; a space from where I look down on myself and what is happening around me and I see, as if magnified, the swirls of good and bad and the few (very few) little eddies of calm of my surroundings.

Not knowing what is cause or effect I can only notice that some remarkable events have happened in the last few days; each one resonating with me much like strings resonate at their fundamental or overtone frequencies. [The metaphor is rich and enticing. Fundamental tones…? Overtones…? But first there is always the act of making sound, and the resulting melody.]

Part of the sound making yesterday came from Annabel who plays an instrument that is finely tuned with mine. I met her a few years ago through a colleague who introduced us. She is from South Africa and I now think we may have a common Boer ancestor, some desperate and/or enlightened spirit who traveled through Holland in the 1600s on his way to South Africa and possibly dropped a seed in the low lands.

She came to MSH yesterday for what we call a Brown Bag Lunch presentation, invited by my colleague who was sick and asked me to introduce her. So I googled her and read some of her most recent essays on ethics, leadership and change, topics of utmost importance to our work. She spoke to us about these topics and about adaptive work and the interconnectedness of systems, weaving a pattern that I recognized. It matched one I am weaving in my head as I am reading Otto Scharmer’s (Theory U) on my Kindle in the spare minutes that dot my day as I wait for this or that to start, to load, to begin. Did she resonate with my overtone or fundamental frequency?

Her talk also created some disharmony in the audience that painfully illustrated the points she was making – unnoticed by those who took it as a false note (her fault, not theirs). It reminded me of discussions after a concert with music too modern for some people’s ears. Not understanding, they criticize the composer rather than questioning their ears. It was one of those swirls that causes upheaval and kept me thinking about what I saw. Being both in the wild waters and above it, I was able to resist being swept away.

There were more Goethe quotes, and I saw (read?heard?) more of the fundamental tones. Who was this man who said things sometimes so deep, sometimes so funny? The Kindle allows me to satisfy my curiosity instantly for pennies – long dead authors are cheap. I download a few of his works, Faust, a biography, in under a minute. Now I have all this wisdom quite literally in my pocket. I think Kindle’s next frontier is to implant the technology in the brain for direct download onto neural paths (and duckboards).

I was pooped last night when I returned home but the day was not done. First there was the bone density scan; I am in that age category now and besides, the scan machine at the doctor’s office needs to be paid off. A quick interlude at home, eating leftovers while Tessa and her friend Cara cooked falafel, then off to a committee meeting of our Quaker community where Ken regaled us with stories of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, gambling, crime and dour Mennonites(joyless women in dresses with droopy flowers and men in straight and boring suits) trying to save the people from Sodom and Gomorra. We did our Quaker business wearing Mardi Gras necklasses and drinking herbal teas.

On my way home I chased, unwittingly and unwillingly a fearsome bunny that had emerged prematurely from its burrow. Its unusual presence on that cold night, amidst piles of snow and ice reminded me of my first encounter with Gwendalle, half Cherokee, half American, who told me, some 18 years ago, that chance encounters with animals are never chance. I consulted Jamie Shams’ Medicine Cards which tell me: “Here is the lesson. If you pulled Rabbit, stop talking about horrible things happening and get rid of “what if” in your vocabulary. This card may signal a time of worry about the future or of trying to exercise your control over that which is not yet in form – the future. Stop now! Write your fears down and be willing to feel them. Breathe into them, and feel them running through your body into Mother Earth as a give-away.”

From a website about superstitions related to rabbits, I learned otherwise however: “It is lucky to meet a hare, but unlucky to see it run across the path. Should it cross the path of a wayfarer from right to left, his journey will be disastrous; if it scuds along the way before him, the issue of his affairs will be doubtful for some time; but if it crosses from left to right it is a lucky token.” I am afraid it did not cross from left to right. I guess I better take Jamie Sams medicine.