Take It, It’s Yours

By Professor Pan, a blogger — January 2008

Pan said…

Many years ago…

I was heading to a nearby college bar with a friend, talking about synchronicity (he had never heard of the word). We had a long, interesting conversation and we swapped examples.

After we arrived at the bar, we had to wait in a line to get in. A young woman walked past me, holding a book in her hands -- one of those Time/Life “Mysteries of the Unknown”-type books. I knew as she walked by that she was carrying MY copy of the book. The wear-and-tear along the spine, the ripped dust-jacket -- there was no mistaking it. It was my book.

I introduced myself and told her that I didn’t know her, but that she was carrying my book. “Oh, Laura loaned it to me.”

We deduced the identity of Laura, and I dimly recalled loaning the book to her many months before.

“Here,” the woman said. “Take it -- it’s yours.”

I thanked her for believing me. After all, many people would have just kept the book. She smiled and left.

My friend had been watching. “Now THAT was a synchronicity,” he said.

I laughed and opened the book at random. There, staring at us, was a photo of Carl Jung. Beneath his photo, the caption mentioned that he had coined the word “synchronicity.”

I’ve had lots of powerful synchronicities in my life, but that one remains iconic, and it’s the example I always trot out when the subject comes up.

Our constant curiosity is key
to watching what’s being created.
~ David Moorhead