It Is Happening.

Recently, a friend loaned me a CD of many lectures given by the great Alan Watts some time in the 1960's. At one point, Alan explores the concept of dying in our sleep, questioning the idea of where a being goes when it passes on in this way. Later, he revealed this would be his preferred way to leave the Earth when his time should come. I was bewildered to find out how Alan Watts did in fact die on November 16th, 1973. He would have certainly chuckled at this grand & quite final synchronistic event. 

To kick off the site's intended purpose of being a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other, our first contributions (outside of my own) arrived today from Assemblage artist Victoria Roberts (www.artassemblage.blogspot.com), or 'Mom' as I've called her for 34 years.   

1. While walking to the store one morning I chanced to encounter Michael O'Keefe reading the paper, drinking his coffee...I smiled and said hello, he too smiled and nodded. I walked on, remembering his marriage, and then divorce, to Bonnie Raitt. My mind wandered to Bonnie Raitt and all she had been through. Entering the store, within 30 seconds the Bonnie Raitt song 'Nick of Time' came on...right in sync with my thoughts!

2. I was driving a long distance and as I drove, a Stephen Stills song came on and I spent quite a bit of time wandering through my memories of the time I spent in Colorado working for Stephen Stills. I was driving for hours by myself so I allowed myself to reminisce. When I got home I went to check my email and I to my surprise I had an email from Stephen Stills in my inbox. Granted it was his endorsement of John Kerry and not an email to me personally, but what were the odds of me receiving an email from him for any reason, (we've been out of touch for 30 years), but on that day, when he had been so on my mind? 

3. I went over to my friend Laurie's house one night and asked her to go to dinner with me at Canter's Deli in Los Angeles. I felt like having some of their barley soup. We walk down there and as we entered we noticed signs posted that there may be cameramen filming… and, there's a sign up saying that the barley soup is 55 cents. We figured it was part of a mock-up for some film project, after all, we're in LA. So when our waitress comes up and we order the barley soup, she figures we're there for the special. Then we ask her about the sign, and she says, “it's part of the 55th birthday special, the soup is 55 cents”. WOW, we thought we really scored! Then Laurie suggests I order a sandwich to share, anything that I want, my choice. I chose corned beef on rye, as that what I was craving! So we ordered one to split and the waitress looked at us with a quizzical look. "Why don't you each get one, they're only 55 cents?" We looked at each other and turned to her and ask, "is everything on the menu 55 cents?” “No" she says, "just the two things you ordered". The rest of the evening as we sat and enjoyed our meals costing us $1.10 each, I couldn’t help but feel I was exactly in the right place at the right time… the waitress was unusually cheerful and pleased with the idea that we had just happened on to this circumstance... we too marveled on and off for hours!

Sync In The City is a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other. If you would like to participate, please forward stories to to: jc@jaymeecarpenter.com