I am currently at a place where it is very difficult for me to believe in anything supernatural. Perhaps, I value truth and honesty so much I give my faith to things I have a sufficient measure of certainty on.
A few weeks after my bestfriend died, I saw these four stems dropped under a tree while walking. The stems formed a # symbol. In Chinese, this is a symbol for well: the square at the middle is the well and the squares around it are the houses and villages that surround it, where people come from to walk and draw water from it.
I chose not to share this photo to anyone, even friends who are grieving because they will simply interpret this as a sign that my friend has sent.
I kept this selfishly to myself so that it’s meaning to me is not destroyed. Yes it reminded me of the well, a symbol that my friend often used to refer to that place where we draw our words from. But I see this not as a sign sent by my friend from the spirit world. This is all a coincidence. We denegrate coincidences. We would rather believe that things were “meant” to be and an invisible hand (God? Destiny?) is moving all of these.
But to me, coincidences are deeply beautiful.
It was a coincidence that I was born in 1992 and my friend earlier than that.
It was a coincidence that we met in a retreat last 2017.
It was a coincidence that as I grieve him, I came upon this pile of stems shaped like a well, his favorite symbol and a reminder to come back to my inner well for comfort.
I could’ve been born in another year and another place. I could’ve been living a different life that didn’t necessitate me joining the retreat in 2017. I could’ve been walking on a different path that afternoon when I saw these stems. And yet through coincidences all of these happened.
To me, a natural explanation that I could easily understand rather than a supernatural one that demands me to leap into a conclusion I could never prove, is way more beautiful by its simplicty and honesty,
To do
- Research on the difference of synchronicity and coincidence