No Ordinary Moments...

For the past few weeks, I have been able to bring myself to be more aware of what is going on around me as well as my own reactions. Before I elaborate on certain events that happened last week, there is a necessary back story that led up to said events. As most of you know, I am a Netflix enthusiast. Few months back, I queued a movie called Peaceful Warrior. No one suggested it to me nor had I read the book it was based on. I just stumbled upon it one day, liked the summary, so I put it on my list. It sat on my list for a while, roughly a month or so. Then early last month, I put it on top of the queue and received it a couple days later. However, I didn't watch it right away. It waited in my DVD player for couple more weeks when I finally decided to watch it one Sunday night. I should have been going to bed instead, but you know me when it comes to sleeping. Anyway, it is a good movie, with a decent cast, and a great message. I won't go into the details of the movie because I think everyone can relate to it in their own way if they want to see it. Main thing I got from it was to be within each moment with greater awareness.

During the movie's 2 week stay at my apartment, my wonderful friend Simona was vacationing (on holiday - hehe...) in Greece. I can’t thank her enough for the awesome postcard she sent me, followed by a wonderful surprise phone call (even though it was 6 am on a Saturday, but well worth it), and to top it off, a she bought me a souvenir in Greece that is on its way. So, she returned to London around the same time I returned the movie. We exchanged emails shortly thereafter in which I had referenced something about the movie I had watched. Nothing in great detail, just some references to being in the moment and recognizing everything one can in each moment.

Anyway, she ended up watching the movie as well a few days later, which was last Tuesday to be more specific. So, I come into work Wednesday morning wanting to purchase the book so I can read the "full" version of the story. (This will be added to my long list of "want to read" books - that is whole another issue). I searched for details on the book, and one of the links took me to the author's official webpage. There, I saw a post of his upcoming events. And he was holding a workshop that same day, Wednesday, September 24th, in LONDON from 7 pm - 9:30 pm. What are the chances, right? I am just searching for how much the books costs and where to buy from on the World Wide Web, and I just happen to stumble onto that page. At this point, I hadn’t corresponded with her in any way for about 10 days. So, I decide to text this information to Simona. With the time difference, I was sending this to her around 4 pm London time and not knowing her work schedule, etc. Couple hours later, I get a text from her saying she had just enough time to run home from work, get more details about the event, and that she is heading down there to see if she can get a ticket. About an hour after that, she tells me she found a ticket from a guy (bloke - hehe...) whose friend hadn't shown up and that the workshop was about to begin. So now, I am running through all the events that have lead up to this. Not only from that day, but also from a few months back that started all this. I couldn't help but see the "perfection" within the timeline of these events. I felt connected. The feeling in itself was much more important than what I was connected to. One of those natural highs that people speak of I guess (not the kind Smokey was explaining to Craig). Needless to say, I was feeling quite appreciative and pleased how everything had turned out. But it was still not over. Three hours later, I get a text asking if I will answer my phone if she called me in a few minutes. Thinking she must want to share something real quick about the class, I replied of course. When I answered, she quickly said, "Hang on, I have someone that wants to say say hi..." During the few seconds it took for her to pass her cell (mobyle - hehe...), I thought to myself, who could she possibly be talking about. The next thing I hear is, "Hi Jig. This is Dan Millman and I am here in London-town and wanted to say hi." I greeted him real quick, and he passed the phone back to Simona as he was in the middle of singing copies of his book after the workshop. I expressed how grateful I felt that she would do such a thing. And it's not like I know anything about this author or been a long time fan or anything. I just found out about him and who he was, etc. earlier that day. Later that evening (night for Simona), we had a conversation about what had happened to us both. She shared as much as she could remember from the workshop as she was in a similar state I was in at that point. One thing she did mention was how she had had that movie at her place for a while, and given our recent references to it, she decided to finally watch it.

Now, I know there are plenty of people out there that will write this off as mere coincidences and move on. And some of those might even USE the phrase, "everything happens for a reason" on a regular basis which is laughable irony in itself. Anyway, I was unsure if I wanted to write about all this, but a couple of things made it quite clear that I should. One of the few people I had shared this story with said that her husband was given this book as a birthday gift (pressie - hehe...) earlier this year. Neither of them had enough time to read it yet, but now she feels she has to read the book after hearing my story (by the way, the author's first appearance in 2009 takes place in her hometown in January). The other thing was an email from Simona over the past weekend. She said she found a postcard in her room of the movie which was advertising the author's workshop coming up in September. She thinks she picked it up ages ago at a Body, Mind and Spirit festival she attended. Just as this was all meant to happen, I figure so is this blog. Who knows if or how it may affect someone out there. But all I can do is my part...