Coincidences in Will Fly For Food

"No Coincidence, No Story!"

"A coincidence (often stated as a mere coincidence) is a collection of two or more events or conditions, closely related by time, space, form, or other associations which appear unlikely to bear a relationship as either cause to effect or effects of a shared cause, within the observer's or observers' understanding of what cause can produce what effects."

Everyone has "coincidence" stories and everyone thinks theirs is the best. I've had several coincidences, although I don't really put much stock in them. To me, they are just something to be noticed and appreciated, to put a smile on my face. It makes you feel like maybe there really is a bigger plan, maybe there is something out there watching out for you. Coicidences are like Easter Eggs god puts into your life to make sure you're paying attention, and to make sure you know that he is too. And he obviously has a good sense of humor.

My favorite coincidence I've ever had happen was this, and the details get fuzzy since it's been a lot of years. When myself, friend Rachel and Haley were in high school we spent a lot of time at the lake. We would screw around, play, go swimming, walk around, whatever. It was THE BEST time with my two favorite people in the world. This was years ago (2003-2005). Before airplanes, before college, before we got married, before we had kids, and houses, and cars, and full time jobs. One day, towards the end of our last summer together,we were out there swimming and we had these three inflatable rafts. One of them - the blue one - broke free of the herd and blew away. The wind was blowing pretty fierce so it was a situation where we weren't going to catch it no matter what. It was gone, lost forever. We figured someone would find it wrapped around their fence, or stuck to the side of their house. Maybe they would use it, maybe they would throw it away. It was a $3 walmart pool raft. No loss.

After Haley, Rachel and I left for college our little trio started to fall apart. Haley got really into partying and fell deeper into her relationship black-hole that was Jamie. Rachel went to USD, where, after a semester she decided she didn't like it and moved back to Watertown. I kept trucking away at school, but it was a really turbulent time for me (I got arrested, broke up with Sean, had to get a lawyer and go to court, ect ect). I was home for winter break in January and was driving home from getting a hair cut. It was a calm winter day - cold, but the sun was shining and the wind wasn't really blowing. I was almost to my mom's house, maybe 1/4 mile away. And I saw this. Those houses in the background are my mom's neighborhood.

Did someone lose a blue raft in the middle of winter? Nobody around my mom owned a swimming pool and the lake was frozen solid. Where did it come from? Was it the same raft? It looked exactly the same. What were the odds that it was lost, taken from us at Lake Kempeska, at a park a full 2+ miles away, 5 months before that. My mom lives South (SSW) of the park we lost it at by at least two miles, and when the wind took it it blew it to the NE, which would have been the exact opposite direction of my mom's house, then it what, came back to us? If I hadn't been home, if I hadn't driven that direction to go get a hair cut (which I rarely did - turning west from there you head further out of town), if I had been any earlier or later would it have been caught/ruptured/torn on the barbed wire fence? In that case it would have just been another random piece of plastic/garbage. What were the odds I had a camera with me. A real camera, not a camera phone (it was 2005 people), a real camera!

What a crazy random happenstance! So have you guys ever had a really interesting coincidence? I'm not talking about one of those silly "I was talking about Larry and then I bumped into him at the grocery store" or "I was just thinking about calling you when the phone rang". I want good ones!

<3 Sarah

PS - what set this off was I listened to the "This American Life" podcast called "No coincidence, no story!" which is their most recent one. Check it out, it's pretty amusing. :)