Serendipity and/or Synchronicity

A COUNTRY ROAD, A HAPPENSTANCE
WHERE ALL'S ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Synchronicity ~ Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
Wallpaper at quotefancy

Synchronicity I

With one breath, with one flow
You will know
Synchronicity

A sleep trance, a dream dance,
A shared romance,
Synchronicity

A connecting principle,
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible.
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible.

If we share this nightmare
Then we can dream
Spiritus mundi.

If you act, as you think,
The missing link,
Synchronicity.

We know you, they know me
Extrasensory
Synchronicity.

A star fall, a phone call,
It joins all,
Synchronicity.

It's so deep, it's so wide
Your inside
Synchronicity.

Effect without a cause
Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause
Synchronicity

Sung by The Police
Words & music by Sting

********************

Serendipity ~ Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)
Poster at AZ Quotes

Lawrence Block: "Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for."

Erin McKean: "Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult."

********************
I recently had a lovely fall visit with my sister Diane during which we resumed our discussion of the "s" words for all the good coincidences: synchronicity -- when events occur simultaneously and "appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection"; and serendipity -- when events occur and develop "by chance in a happy or beneficial way." I still remember learning the meaning of serendipity, when it appeared as a vocabulary word on a 10th grade typing test! I was the slowest typist in the class, but at least I learned the vocabulary!

Remember that romantic line sung by Rita Coolidge (music by John Barry; lyrics by Tim Rice): Funny how it always goes with love, when you don´t look, you find? Well, that's kind of how it is with serendipity, except that instead of not looking, you are searching for one thing but end up finding another that is even more valuable or agreeable than the original item you were seeking.

And then there's synchronicity. After my sister departed, I sent her a note to let her know how much I was missing her, and to wish her well on the remainder of her travels. She texted back:

"Sweet you. I got your message when we stopped on our way home. We were at a ❤️Love's Travel Stop❤️ at the time. Awwww, right? Earlier we had stopped at Walmart and our cashier's name was "Kitty." What did you call that? Something about the universe synching? Today it did! 😊"

Di calls this my "Doll House Back Porch”

Also 2018 & 2016

SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS ON MY
Next Fortnightly Post
Monday, October 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com

The Miracle of Mushrooms

MUSHROOMS, ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Giant Puffball Mushroom,
about the size of a soccer ball, in our backyard.
I placed the apple and pears alongside for scale,
only to be queried by my son Sam: "How do I know
those aren't just miniature apples and pears?" Haha!

Searching not for a Halloween scare,
but merely for further information concerning
the Calvatia_gigantea,
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I googled
Wikipedia and this creepy face suddenly appeared
on my laptop, leering eerily amongst the puffballs.

"How do we know that isn't just a shrunken head?!"

Or, as my daughter - in - law Cathleen said:
"Wow! That takes scale to another level!"

"Or consider just the mushroom family,
rich as that is in tradition and deception. . . ."
~ Shirley Jackson ~

We are surrounded by the mystery and miracle of mushrooms!
Last month, my friend Beata sent an update of the
late summer adventures that she was having near Warsaw:

"Dear friends,

I’ve been in Poland already five days. . . . This weekend we went to visit friends who live in Gostynin. This small village, located in the Mazowsze Region, is known for a wonderful fresh microclimate created by pine forestry. We went mushroom hunting today, and I include photos of our treasure."

"Sending you warm greetings from the forest!"

"Mushrooms on the porch table,
lit by the afternoon sunshine!"


Elegant and mystical . . .

. . . just like Sylvia Plath's poem!
Notice how the mushrooms speak for themselves:

Mushrooms

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

American poet, Sylvia Plath (1932 - 1963)

**************

This, and all mushrooms above
(except for the Giant Puffballs)
photographed by Beata Ribeiro
Poland ~ September 2018
THANKS BEATA!

SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS ON MY
Next Fortnightly Post
Wednesday, November 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com

Luna Moth Summer

Beautiful Butterfly
Accustomed, Ceremonious

July 17th on the Garage Door
Our elegant summer visitor stayed all day, from early morning until around 11pm, somehow holding on to the garage door, even through hours of really stormy weather and strong winds. Halfway through the day, it occurred to me that both my car and my bike were in that garage, so in deference to the resplendent luna, I sought out other transportation for my errands!

I loved my sister Di's comment: "That is so awesome, such a rare thing to see. Lyla [8 1/2 year - old grand-daughter] is setting here with me and said, 'Oh! A Luna Moth.' She knows!"

Maybe Lyla already is, or soon will be, a fan of the Melendy Kids:

"Floating out of the dark, knocking against the overhang, came something so beautiful, so fairylike that Oliver hardly dared to breathe. The thing was a moth, but like no other moth that he had seen. Its wings were as wide as his two hands opened out, as frail as a pair of petals, and colored a pale, pale green: a moonlit silvery green.

" 'Gee,' whispered Oliver. He sat there staring. 'A luna! I never thought I'd see a real luna!'

"It came close, hovered against the screen, and paused there. He could see the long curved tails on its wings, the delicate white fur on its body and legs. Oliver thought he had never seen anything so perfect. He and the moth watched each other for a long moment; neither moved. . . .

"For a long time after that whenever he thought about the luna moth he felt happy. He was careful not to think about it too often. Just once in a while he would look into his own mind and let himself see it again: his discovery, his beautiful guest, his secret. Seeming more than a moth, it paused there at his window: rarest green fragile, perfect, living. The thought of it made Oliver happy all over again" (87 - 89).

from Then There Were Five
by Elizabeth Enright

July 27th at the Swimming Pool
We spotted a number of lunas at swimming pool over the summer. We rescued three in one day from the surface of the swimming pool and re - located them to the hibiscus hedge. Two of them flew away, but this one remained long enough for a photo op. Thanks to my friend Beata for sharing this informative link & amazing poem:

LUNA
Egg to wings: 51 weeks;
Wings to dead: 1 week.

We grieve for the Luna moth,
Its spectacular short life,
Beauty, beauty, beauty, beauty, beauty.
Living only a week
to seek, mate, die.

Perhaps we project too much,
Perhaps there is no intelligence to mourn,
Perhaps there is only a bundle of instincts,
Atop that fuzzy white body,
between those green wings.

The leaf-consuming caterpillar
(also greenly beautiful),
Has five months to eat, wander, eat, ponder,
To taste the beauty of a sumac leaf,
To feel sun, dark, rain, wind.

Then seven long contemplative months as a pupa,
Softly moving inside, always thinking.
Knowing the tides of seasons' slow change,
Until it is time
To surrender all conscious thought,
To become a pale night flyer.

~ David Mark

Thanks to my friend Debra
for sharing her photo from last summer:

Happy Hollow Luna Moths ~ 2018 & 2019

We found this beauty stranded on the concrete
and repatriated it to the flower bed.

Luna Moth, checking out the pool depth.
Thanks to Nataliya Semchynska for these 2 photos.

P.S.
Earliest I’ve ever seen the Luna moth!
April 14, 2023
Boar's Head Swimming Pool
Charlottesville, Virginia

SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS FOR MY
Next Fortnightly Post
Monday, September 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com