Is there anything to read into coincidences?
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:31 pm
Hello all,
I have recently started a young family and family life is taking up all my time, so much so that chores seem to take what free time I had and compress it down to a minuscule compartment. I don't mind doing the new types of work involved with raising my son but the household tasks which were always there, now really grate on me. A big one since we're living without a dishwasher since the last move is washing the dishes, and the dishes regularly pile up making the kitchen look like a battlefield until I bring myself to tackle them.
The other night, I picked up what I thought was a random book from my eclectic bookshelf to read to my five-week-old baby boy. Not as story time, but more so he could hear my voice, learn to recognize the tones, and become familiar with the sounds of words. The book I picked up was small and concise, something I considered would be appropriate for an easy read-aloud session.
It was 'How to sit' by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. I was reading the short phrases and anecdotes out to my little one and it occurred to me that I would really like some more time to myself, and would really like to get more involved in learning about mindfulness. After my son drifted off to baby sleep, I went on Amazon and ordered three books by Thich Nhat Hanh.
They arrived the next day and so I opened one of them, 'The Miracle of Mindfulness' and began to read. The first page was about a friend of the author's not having any time to himself due to having a young family, and the second page literally dealt with how to wash dishes so that one gets the job done and done well. I couldn't work out whether this was something mundane and I was getting excited about nothing or whether I should be astounded by the amount of unexpected coincidence.
Should I be reading into the coincidences? What do clusters of coincidences that seem to lead a certain way mean? If anything at all?
I have recently started a young family and family life is taking up all my time, so much so that chores seem to take what free time I had and compress it down to a minuscule compartment. I don't mind doing the new types of work involved with raising my son but the household tasks which were always there, now really grate on me. A big one since we're living without a dishwasher since the last move is washing the dishes, and the dishes regularly pile up making the kitchen look like a battlefield until I bring myself to tackle them.
The other night, I picked up what I thought was a random book from my eclectic bookshelf to read to my five-week-old baby boy. Not as story time, but more so he could hear my voice, learn to recognize the tones, and become familiar with the sounds of words. The book I picked up was small and concise, something I considered would be appropriate for an easy read-aloud session.
It was 'How to sit' by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. I was reading the short phrases and anecdotes out to my little one and it occurred to me that I would really like some more time to myself, and would really like to get more involved in learning about mindfulness. After my son drifted off to baby sleep, I went on Amazon and ordered three books by Thich Nhat Hanh.
They arrived the next day and so I opened one of them, 'The Miracle of Mindfulness' and began to read. The first page was about a friend of the author's not having any time to himself due to having a young family, and the second page literally dealt with how to wash dishes so that one gets the job done and done well. I couldn't work out whether this was something mundane and I was getting excited about nothing or whether I should be astounded by the amount of unexpected coincidence.
Should I be reading into the coincidences? What do clusters of coincidences that seem to lead a certain way mean? If anything at all?