Fate Or Coincidence Brings Two Friends Together Over And Over

It's strange how some people seem to be part of our lives - whether we want them to be or not. Somehow 'fate' brings us into contact with someone over and over again - almost like it's meant to be - as this experience from John Hancox illustrates:

It all started in 1947. Up to the age of 11, the days began with me escaping early in the morning with my best mate who lived opposite.

We spent hours in the park, playing on the railway line or in the local wood. ending long after dark, but only if our parents could catch us.

Our friendship ended when the local council rehoused us a mile or so away. Five years later we moved to the next county and lost all contact.

At 20, I found myself crossing the parade ground of the police training centre wearing the uniform of the local county force, when I spotted my old friend coming towards me wearing the police uniform of my old county. We wasted no time in catching up, amazed at the coincidence of us both joining the police at the same time, something we had never discussed.

Off we went to start our new careers hoping to stay in touch, but we never managed it. Ten years passed, wives and children followed, until I decided to move back to the town where I grew up.

On day one, at my new police station, I saw my old mate at his desk. I said, "Well, it's great we are working together." He replied, "Not for long; my transfer to another station has come through." That was it - off he went 12 miles away. It had become a standing joke about calling round to each other's houses for a cup of tea, which we never managed to do.

A further three years passed until one day, with my back to the office door, I heard it open and that familiar voice shouted: "Don't bother coming round for a cup of tea, I have bought a house and am moving."

Taken aback, I then said: "You needn't come round my house either, as I am moving to my new house. Where are you moving to?"

He replied, "88 (naming the road) and where are you gong?"

I said, "Number 66 in the same road."

That was 36 years ago and, yes, we still live in the same street - and we still have not had that cup of tea.

~ John Hancox, Leicestershire

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A Remarkable Coincidence Spanning Australia And England And 50 Years

A caravan camp site in Kalgoorlie, Australia

Here's a remarkable coincidence story involving two couples who met up twice, completely by coincidence - or perhaps fate. They must surely have been meant to meet, against all the odds. The story, from my cuttings, is by Richard Francis from Hampshire in England.

In 2004, my wife, Helen, and I embarked on a caravan tour of Australia. We arrived in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and Helen went to do the laundry in the campsite launderette,

An Australian lady joined her and they started chatting. Helen, who is from Edinburgh but has lived in England for more than 50 years, noticed a slight Scottish brogue in the Aussie twang, so the conversation went something like this.

Helen: "Where are you originally from?"

Lady, "Edinburgh."

Helen, "So am I. Which part?"

Lady, "South side."

Helen, "Me, too. Which school did you go to?"

Lady, "Preston Street."

Helen, "So did I. How old are you?"

Lady, "Sixty-five."

Helen, "So am I!"

Lady: What was your maiden name?"

Helen, "Turner."

The lady burst into tears and said, "I'm Marion Purvis, and I was your best friend at primary school."

Marion had emigrated to Australia when she was aged 15.

We parted company the next day after much Chardonnay and many memories, us to continue east and Marion and her husband to travel west.

Six months later, we arrived at Exmouth, Western Australia, and after setting up camp, went for a walk.

On our return, we found a bunch of flowers on our table together with a note: it was from Marion and her husband who had coincidentally arrived at the same place after several thousand miles. More wine!

~ Richard Francis.

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Did Fate Save Some Men At A Mine Disaster?

Mather Mine

Somehow or other I came to be reading about the Mather Mine disaster, Wikipedia describes it thus:

"The Mather Mine disaster refers to the events surrounding an explosion that occurred in the Mather Mine on May 19, 1928 at 4:07 PM in Mather, Pennsylvania. A report released by the United States Bureau of Mines states that a total of 195 men were killed in the catastrophe ..."

Now what struck me is how some men weren't working on the day of the disaster for some reason or other - and other men were working, when they shouldn't have been. In other words some men were saved and others were killed. Was this a coincidence, or was fate playing a part in saving some but killing others?

Here's how some men survived ...

Bill Bakura, father of Mrs. Walter Montgomery of Waynesburg, was almost ready to enter the mine that fateful day when suddenly he became ill. He went home, and his substitute became one of the victims.

Mike Mullen's alarm clock failed to go off, and he missed work that day.

Carl Doney overslept and his life was spared.

Joe Guidi and his father were about to enter the mine when Joe told his father he had a strange feeling something was going to happen. He replaced his pit lamp and went home. They brought the body of his father home several days later,

The entire Mather baseball team left work early because it had a big game in Nemacolin that evening. Charles Haber, an infielder, returned later to the mine to get his tools. He was the only member of the team to die that day.

An unnamed miner had a terrible nightmare about a rock-fall on the night before the disaster and refused to work that day. As a consequence he lived for many more years.

But others were there when perhaps they need not have been:

An unnamed young miner volunteered to work that day to make extra money for a trip with his wife. They were going to celebrate their first wedding anniversary,

Four brothers, Paul, Sam, John and Andy Bootz were killed. Two of the brothers had only started at the mine the previous day.

It seems, whenever there is a disaster there are stories of how people perhaps missed a flight or train journey, or felt they shouldn't go somewhere on a particular day. It always makes me wonder if there is a time to die and also a time when we should live. If so, I wonder how that decision is reached?

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The Biggest Coincidence Of All Is That You Are Reading This

Have been pondering a little about coincidences and fate, destiny and all that sort of thing. I didn't reach any final conclusions - I never do, I'm not sure anyone does. But when you think about such aspects of life it does make you realise the fragility of life and the miracle that any of us are here right now. We are one big coincidence.

If you take yesterday's post as an example. Two people met by coincidence, or whatever you may prefer to call it. As a consequence they went on to marry and have six children, 15 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. If they hadn't have met that's 32 people who would never have been born - and hundreds, maybe thousands, possibly even many more to come in the future

It's the same with any of us if our grand-grand-grand-grand parents had never met, perhaps by accident - and going backwards in time to many, many more levels - then you wouldn't be reading this now and I wouldn't have written this post. We wouldn't be here - or would we?

Are we all just coincidences, fortunate to be here at odds of millions to one against, or is there something deeper behind why we are here at this time?

I won't ramble on, but our brief existence on earth, at this time, is a pretty remarkable coincidence, to say the least. Or maybe not ...

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Two Human Beings, The Lonely Ones, Edvard Munch 1895

Here's a little story to make you go ahhhh! Reg and Christine Upton of Anslow in Staffordshire, England say that a 'moment of coincidence' led them to celebrating their diamond wedding.

Over 60 years ago they both had dates in a local park but both were stood up. So, with the help of fate or coincidence, the two wallflowers got together instead - in a perfectly respectable way, of course. And now they have celebrated their 60th anniversary with 140 guests.

Reg and Christine have five sons, one daughter, 15 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Reg told the Burton Mail, "I am proud to say that we are still as much in love as we were when we first met and we would do it all over again if we could. I still remember when we first met. I was 19 and Chris was 17, and I remember having to pay for everything at the wedding.

After paying for the food and all the bits and bobs, we literally had a few pence to last us a week – but it was worth it. And on our wedding night, I had to go out and milk the cows, so we spent the next morning in bed with a cup of tea and a cream cake.

We still love each other as much as we did then and still hold hands while we are on holiday and we love each others company."

I guess some things are just meant to be.

Nearly forgot: ahhhh!

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But For Fate I Wouldn't Have Been Born

During the miserable wet Autumn and winter of World War II's Italian Campaign in 1943, both sides were bogged down and had to dig themselves in - in a perverse reminder of the horrors of trench warfare of the previous Great War.

Gord Young was a young soldier caught up in the circumstances which had landed him and his two buddies in that dangerous situation. Their slit trench was living room, bedroom and toilet, a human refuge. It was their home for more than two miserable weeks.

Occasionally the entrenched soldiers were permitted the luxury of a hot meal at the field kitchen some distance back from the forward lines. It was brief but very welcome respite.

On one occasion, after Gord and his pals had been out for a meal, they carefully made their way back to the trench. It was no longer there. During their brief absence, a three-inch mortar shell had landed squarely on their 'home', totally obliterating it. Had they been in the trench at the time they would also have been obliterated with it.

The workings of coincidence, fate, Kismet or whatever you may wish to call it are mysterious. My own father, during World War 2, had to go to work, leaving early in the morning. He had forgotten to take with him something he needed, so turned around to get this from where he was living.

A German bomb exploded where he would have been walking if he had continued. In a way his life was saved and mine too. If he had been killed I wouldn't be here now - I wouldn't have been born. We really are all subject to the hand of fate. Some are drawn into a situation, while others are spared.

It makes you think!

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Was President Kennedy's Death Down To A Coincidence?

A few minutes before President Kennedy's assassination

Okay, there have been many. many conspiracy theories about President Kennedy's death, but this is something I came across recently, in The Pittsburgh Press published 12 days after the assassination. The question is: Was JFK's death purely down to a coincidence? If the circumstances hadn't come about as per the following, would President Kennedy still be alive?

Dallas, Dec 4, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald's boss said today that he thinks sheer coincidence led Oswald to the job that provided a vantage point from which he allegedly assassinated President Kennedy.

Roy S Truly, superintendent of operations at the Texas School Book Depository, said he hired Oswald as a temporary stock clerk at $1.25 an hour on October 16, 1963.

It was not until Nov 20, two days before the assassination, that it became known the President's motorcade would pass the book building.

In fact, Mr Truly said, there was doubt almost to the last whether there would be a motorcade through Dallas as all.

Furthermore, Mr Truly said, it wasn't Oswald who asked for the job at the book building but rather his landlady.

Mrs Michael Paine, with whom Oswald's wife and children lived in suburban Irving, telephoned Mr Truly about the job. "She called me and said that a neighbour's brother was working here and that he had mentioned that we might need another man," Mr Truly recalled.

Mr Kennedy was shot to death by a rifle fired from a sixth floor window of the book building and Oswald has been accused of committing the deed.

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What Is It? Coincidence Or Fate?

A short coincidence story

Maurice 'Murray' Weill lived in Boca Raton and booked a flight from Newark to Indianapolis for himself and his wife. This was to celebrate their granddaughter's graduation from Indiana University.

When they were being seated, the stewardess told them that there was another couple on the plane with the same last name of Weill. It turned out that his first name was also Murray, and officially he was called Maurice.

What are the odds that this could happen: two Maurice Weills, both also known as Murray, would be on the same flight? Probably millions to one.

And one final coincidence is that they both reside in Boca Raton.

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The Red Thread Of Destiny Tightens

It's as if we are meant to see certain things. On Saturday I published a post, The Red Thread Of Destiny Which Connects Us For Eternity.

It was about how author, Ann Hood, was adopting a child from China and was quite shocked to learn that the baby found for her was born on the same day as her daughter, Grace, who had died three years earlier.

I mentioned in the post  about how there is a Chinese belief that we are linked to our children (and others) by a red thread.

I was doing some research on something completely removed from China, adoption and the red threads of destiny, when I came across a newspaper, The Free Lance Star, which was dated December 21, 2004.

It was as if it was shoved in front of my face: there was an article by Marcia Armstrong, about, yes, China, adoption and red threads.

Marcia, who was in the process of adopting, went on to write:

"And, it is. Finally. It is. [the adoption of a Chinese baby].

He sits on the bed and repeats the information the agency representative is telling him so I can write the answers.

"Girl," he says, "Normal health."

"Birthday," he says. Then he stops, even though I'm sure the agency lady is telling him something I should be writing down.

He draws a deep breath.

"She is 2 years old," he says. "Her birthday is September 27."

He is stunned by this information. Because his mother, who died last year, was also born on September 27.

It takes him all the composure he has to listen as the agency lady tells him the child's name and which province she is in.

He looks at me and points to the date I've written on the paper.

"Red thread," he whispers, "This is our red thread."

The lady says she's sending him pictures by e-mail. Then the call is over, and my husband and I ..."

So virtually identical stories.

The same day as I saw Marcia Armstrong's article someone left a comment on one of my posts, which appears to be an example of the red thread shortening and bringing two people together:

"I wouldn't call this a love story as yet but I've had what I consider to be against the odds meetings with a woman in my building.

We met in my building elevator two weeks ago and had a conversation for the first time. I realised I'd last seen her two years ago and, at that time, assumed she was just visiting. As it turns out, she's been living only several doors away from me.

That was on the Monday and by Friday, I came across her in a company I've visited regularly for several years. She also works there but I never knew.

Our working hours are substantially different so the chances of meeting are quite rare; hence not having seen her for two years. However, in the last two weeks, we've had chance meetings every few days.

This morning, for example, she popped into my head in terms of  'I wonder what time she actually does leave for work' and there she was as I turned around. I told the story to a friend and this prompted him to joke that it was if I was stalking her!"

Sometimes it does seem that we are drawn to people by synchronicity - when the time is right, The red thread shortens until there is no escape from our destiny.

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The Red Thread Of Destiny Which Connects Us For Eternity

I was reading an article in a newspaper which mentioned how in China there is a belief that an invisible red thread connects the important people in our lives.

There are various variations on this theme: the red thread links us to the person we should marry or links us to the child destined to be ours, either naturally or through adoption.

With the second of these variations there is an interesting story about the writer, Ann Hood, whose daughter, Grace, tragically died at the age of five.

Ann went through the agonies of losing a child, but three years later the idea developed within her that she should adopt a baby from China. The procedures for doing so were followed and eventually she received notification that a child had been found for her and her husband.

The social worker handling the adoption gave Ann the details, "She's healthy and she's nine months old, born on the 18th of April."

This was a shock, as the 18th of April was the day that Grace had died.

Fate, destiny, synchronicity, coincidence, call it what you will, but since then Ann has found similar examples over and over. Her niece's baby boy was born on her grandfathers birthday. She found that her friend had chosen the 6th of September as her wedding day, without realising that this was also the day her grandparents had married. Even in the group of ten families who travelled with her to China, three of the adopted babies had the same birthdays as those of deceased members of their new families.

There are many legends of the red thread of destiny or fate. The following is from Wikipedia:

"One story featuring the red string of fate involves a young boy. Walking home one night, a young boy sees an old man (Yue Xia Lao) standing beneath the moonlight. The man explains to the boy that he is attached to his destined wife by a red thread. Yue Xia Lao shows the boy the young girl who is destined to be his wife. Being young and having no interest in having a wife, the young boy picks up a rock and throws it at the girl, running away.

Many years later, when the boy has grown into a young man, his parents arrange a wedding for him. On the night of his wedding, his wife waits for him in their bedroom, with the traditional veil covering her face. Raising it, the man is delighted to find that his wife is one of the great beauties of his village. However, she wears an adornment on her eyebrow. He asks her why she wears it and she responds that when she was a young girl, a boy threw a rock at her that struck her, leaving a scar on her eyebrow. She self-consciously wears the adornment to cover it up.

The woman is, in fact, the same young girl connected to the man by the red thread shown to him by Yue Xia Lao back in his childhood, showing that they were connected by the red string of fate."

It's not only soul mates or children who are connected in this way. It is often said in China that when a baby is born, he or she is already connected to the important people in his or her life. As each birthday passes the threads shorten and tighten, bringing together those who are fated to be together.

Others say that the red thread connects not just people from the present, but also those from the past and the future. The thread may tangle or knot but it never breaks.

Perhaps we are connected to some people for eternity.

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Married Couple Were Unknowingly Photographed Together As Children

Photo: Kent Online

Here's a coincidence story to rival my popular Married Couple In The Same Photo As Children and Photo Taken Of Father Showed His Missing Daughter posts. The odds against such things happening must be pretty high.

Six year old Nick Wheeler was making sandcastles on a sandy beach in Cornwall along with his sister and cousins. It was at Mousehole to be precise (yes, it's a real place name). His grandfather snapped a photo (above) of them playing, as grandfathers tend to do.

Nick, with his family, were on holiday at the time and had travelled to Cornwall from Kent, about 300 miles away.

About a year later Nick's family decided to move to Newlyn, Cornwall.

All straight forward, the years ticked by, and 11 years later Nick was attending the Sixth Form College in Truro, Cornwall where he met Aimee Maiden. The couple fell in love and later got engaged.

Time rolled on again and Nick was showing his family photos to Aimee when suddenly she shrieked, "That's me!" And there she was in her blue swimming costume playing in the sand just a few feet away from where Nick was building a boat out of sand.

Aimee explained the amazing coincidence by saying, "The photo was taken by Nick's grandad. Nick is sitting front right in the boat with his sister and two cousins and his family, his mum, uncle and nan are to the right and behind them. To the left and behind his cousin. I'm in the blue swimsuit with my mum, dad and sister."

And the story ends happily because last Saturday Nick and Aimee were married at Gulval Church in Mousehole, Cornwall only a short distance from where the photo was taken 20 years ago.

Comment:

It's strange how this sort of synchronicity happens. It's as if we are linked to certain people in our lives and are occasionally drawn almost together - but the time isn't quite right. For a while I worked in Uxbridge, west London and at that time Karin was living there too. We never met until about 10 or 11 years later, and then miles away in Dorset.

There are so many other stories like this. Here's a few brief versions from comments that have been left on my Married Couple In The Same Photo As Children post:

"This same thing has happened to my husband and I. One day we were at my parents home and he was looking through one of my old scrapbooks of camp and there he was in a picture I had taken six years before I even knew who he was!!!"

"When my husband was in kindergarten he went to the same elementary school that I went to when I was in sixth grade. We lived in the same model house a few blocks from each other. He moved out when he was in 1st grade and I moved out when I was 18 years old. We worked at the same small company when we were 24 years old. We got married and have been married 32 years! Very happy years".

"Hey me and my husband were in the same place, at the same time every weekend for about three months until I was single. When I became single we met at a local club and have been together ever since and its been 5.5 years. So sometimes its not meant to be until its meant to be. Oh and me and my hubs have been married for three years and it still feels like yesterday we just fell in love."  

"When I was 37 I ran into a girl at the deli counter who was my best friend in 4th grade. It was in a completely different town. For some reason I recognized her immediately after 29 years. It's like we are 'tied' to certain people."

This happened to me and my friend! We became friends in high school and one day we were looking at a photo album from when she was a kid, and in a picture taken at community event I'm sitting two people away from her!

It does seem as if there are people we are meant to meet in life, but only when the time is right.

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Fate Smiles As Cyclist Cheats Death Twice

Photo: Maarten de Jong / Twitter

I have written before about how it appears that some people are meant to survive, no matter what. Maybe they have some unfinished business here on earth. This struck home again with the case of Maarten de Jonge and Malaysian Flights MH17 and MH370. With both flights all of the passengers were killed or presumed dead.

Mr de Jong was due to travel on both of these flights but for some reason changed his plans both times.

Maarten is a cyclist with Malaysia's Terenggany cycling team. He actually cancelled his seat on MH17 to save money by transferring to a cheaper flight. He also escaped death on the MH370 because he decided to again exchange his ticket, this time for an earlier flight.

He said of his good fortune, "How happy I am for myself and my family. Though my story is nothing, attention should be paid to the victims."

There was another similar case too. Gert Jansen and his family were turned away from boarding MH17 at Schiphol Airport because it was over booked. He said, "All those faces of people with whom we stood in line, are etched in my memory."

It does make you wonder about fate and the things we may have committed to do in this life.

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Trafalgar Square, London VE-Day May 8, 1945

Here's a happy story that makes you wonder if some things in life are meant to be. Are some of the events in our lives pre-planned?

"On May 8, 1945, VE Day, as a Royal Navy leading signalman I was on shore leave with my shipmate mingling with the cheering thousands in Trafalgar Square after Winston Churchill broadcast that war in Europe was over.

Meanwhile, a young lady named Daphne Atkins was partying in a mile-long conga, which later turned up Shaftesbury Avenue and through the pub where my mate and I were having a well needed drink.

On their way through the pub, Miss Atkins stumbled and fell into my lap. She was embarrassed and tried to get up but I held on to her and said, 'There's no hurry.' I asked her to join us in a victory drink.

That was 69 years ago and we're still together. We have celebrated our 65th wedding anniversary, and we now have two lovely daughters, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

I love VE Day"

~ A.W.D. McInnes, Wiltshire, England.

1945 Celebrating VE-Day in Trafalgar Square, London

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Destiny Or Fate? Amazing Coincidence Indicates They Were Meant To Meet

Here's a quite amazing coincidence story from Jean Donahue. To me it's an example of how there are certain people in our lives that we are meant to meet, when the time is right. Some would call this fate or destiny

"My name is Jean Donahue. My best friend's name is Sue.

Sue and I met for the first time in 1980. She is six years older than me. We grew up in different towns with no friends or relatives in common.

Sue is an artist. She's enjoyed drawing since she was a young girl. When she was a teenager she enjoyed drawing little cartoons about school life. She had some favourite characters she would draw and make up little stories about them.

Sue's mother had kept a scrapbook of some of those drawings Sue had made over the years. Shortly after we met, Sue was at her mother's house and was going through that scrapbook. She came across one of those drawings [at top of post] that said, "Schools prettiest girl, Jeanie Donahue 8th grade." She was taken aback and told her mother, "That's strange, I just met a woman named Jean Donahue."

Now, when she drew that picture my name was not Donahue. It did not become Donahue until 1963 when I got married. That picture would have been drawn sometime in the 1950s. I would have been about 5 or 6 years old at the time.

Over the 30+ years that I've know her, Sue has often shown instances of foresight that is sometimes very eerie, even to herself. To this day, Sue insists that she knew nobody by the name of Donahue as on her drawing, she made the name up."

~ Jean

Jean also told me about the sad time her husband died and how Sue was there for her. Who knows, for sure, but maybe this was why they were destined to meet.

On the day Jean's husband died, Sue saw him running errands in town. Sue has since told Jean that her husband had a greyish look about him and she got a very strange feeling. That night, when he was stricken with a heart attack and she heard an emergency siren in town go off, she just knew something had happened and headed straight for Jean's house. Sue was also with Jean when they pronounced him dead at the emergency room.

It's interesting how people come into, and sometimes leave, our lives. We all have roles to play.

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The Remarkable Coincidence Of A Reunited Mother And Daughter After 57 Years

An edited version of the letter Carole sent to her mother in 2005

Carole Davies knew she was adopted and 57 years after her birth, with the help of an amateur genealogist, she managed to trace her mother, Freda Pickering. As well as being reunited again they also discovered a remarkable coincidence.

Times were almost unbelievably different when when Carole was born in 1948. Mrs Pickering had an affair, when she was 19, with a Croatian exile, but he went away. She didn't realise she was pregnant right up to the birth. She said "One night I got this pain in my tummy. I thought babies had to be cut out of you but all of a sudden this baby dropped out." She carried the baby into her mother and said, "Mum, I think I've had a baby."

As happened back in the 1940s, though Mrs Pickering wanted to keep her baby, Carole ended up being adopted. Single mothers were somewhat frowned upon.

And now we come to the coincidences.

Freda in bus uniform

Carole was adopted by a couple who lived only seven miles from where she had been born. As she grew up she attended Tadcaster Grammar School and travelled there on a bus.

The conductor on the bus was none other than her birth mother - Freda Pickering!

For seven years Carole travelled to and from school on the bus her mother worked on, neither of them knowing who the other was.

Mrs Davies said, "I had no idea the lady who checked my bus pass twice a day was my mum. It came as a complete shock when we began talking about our past and my school life, and that was mentioned."

Carole and Freda now have a typical mother and daughter relationship, talking regularly on the phone and meeting up.

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The Magical Web Of Wyrd

The Web of Wyrd by Diana Haronis

I was reading a book called The Book Of English Magic and came upon the expression The Web of Wyrd.

King Alfred the Great is quoted as saying in 888: "What we call Wyrd is really the work of God about which He is busy every day."

Wyrd is Anglo-Saxon and is usually translated as either fate or destiny but, according to the book I mentioned, it literally means 'that which has turned' or 'that which has become.' The idea this suggests is something that those of us into synchronicity and the like will have heard about.

In the Web of Wyrd everything is connected as in a giant, three dimensional spider's web. A real magician works on this assumption and so believes he can influence this web and can reap benefits from being part of this.

Regarding Wyrd and magic I'll quote from the book:

Hedge-Rider

"A basic premise of the magical world-view is that most people go through life oblivious of the magic that is all around them, like the Muggles of JK Rowling's Harry Potter stories.

Learning magic involved developing a curiosity about the world - particularly about nature and about history - so that its secrets can be revealed in all their wonder.

Like an alchemist finding gold, Tolkien discovered in the Dark Ages a treasure trove of material that revealed the romantic and evocative power of the English imagination of that age, with its rune-masters and warlocks, dragons, elves and orcs, land wights and hedge-riders."

In other words we have to notice and become aware of the magic that surrounds us and respect what has gone before.

More Magic Posts:
Magic Which Brings Coincidence And Synchronicity
The Magic Behind The Secret Lodges
The Magic Of Our Ancestors Can Bring Us Success

Book mentioned in this post:
The Book of English Magic - Amazon UK
The Book of English Magic - Amazon USA

The Book Of Fate And Degrees Of Separation

Ella English and LeslieWilliam Moat

Sometimes life makes you think about what might have been, if only things had turned out differently. This in turn leads to subjects such as fate and destiny.

I got thinking along these lines because of an email I received regarding a post I published back in March 2010. This was titled Thought Of The Day: The Sadness And Sorrow Of War. It featured a letter (see below) sent to an old aunt, Ella English, informing her that her fiancé had been killed in the second world war.

I received the email out of the blue and it was from a relative of Sapper Moat (Ella's fiancé) who was researching her family tree.

The lady hadn't realised that Leslie Moat was ever engaged, and didn't know of Ella English. Fortunately I had a photo of the couple to show her, which was handed down to me from my mother when she died.

All in all I thought the email to be quite a coincidence, synchronicity if you like, showing how we are all linked together. This got me pondering what might have been.

If Sapper Moat hadn't have been killed he would have married Ella English and no doubt they would have had children and a whole new family - which could go on for many generations - would have been created. As it was Ella never married.

Oh, and the lady who wrote me the email would have become one of my relatives! Who knows, we may have got to know each other quite well. But it wasn't to be, so we never met or knew of each other - except for the recent email.

Whether we like it or not we are all linked and related but, by 'fate', have never met. So what we do must affect everyone else, because we are all part of everything. Okay, it may be in a minimal way but it could also be in a huge way. Who's to tell.

Receiving the email I mentioned was strange because the one before that was also from someone I didn't know. He wanted to use an image from my blog and went on to say he lived in northern Germany. This just happens to be where my wife was born and lived until a teenager. Another 'coincidence'.

Again this stressed the connections between all of us and goes along with the proven idea that we are all linked by six degrees of separation.

I also mentioned fate and destiny at the beginning of the post and was reminded of a passage from a poem Essay on Man by Alexander Pope:

 Heaven from all creatures hides the Book of Fate,

All but the page prescribed, their present state ...

O blindness to the future, kindly given, 

That each may fill the circle marked by heaven:

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish and a sparrow fall,

Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,

And now a bubble burst and now a world.

Wonder what the Book of Fate has in store?

Other Similar Posts:
Destiny Rolled Out Before Us Coincidence
Top 10 Coincidence And Synchronicity Stories
The Biggest Coincidence There Has Ever Been

Destiny Rolled Out Before Us Coincidence

Liz Jones is a UK newspaper columnist and diary writer for You magazine. I featured one of her stories previously: The Voices Of Dead People Captured On Tape.

A change of track today for Liz as she wonders, via a coincidence, whether our destiny is simply all laid out before us.

"On Friday night, I went to meet my friend Issy in the pub. She told me a spooky story.

Her friend had just lost her dad. She was in his house, going through his things, and found a picture she had drawn as a small child.

It was of a large pink paper crown, the sort you get in a Christmas Craker, and next to it she had written, in crayon, the word 'heaven'.

She emailed a photo of this to Issy, followed by another email, the photo she had taken of her dad at Christmas, just a couple of days before he died. In the photo, he is wearing a large pink paper crown.

I wonder if our destiny is waiting for us, even when we are six or seven. It is all laid out. It unfolds, like a cream carpet."

Other 67 Not Out Stories:
Sometimes Things Happen Because They Are Meant To Happen
Tragic Deaths Illustrate How Fate Has Us At It's Beck And Call
Top 10 Coincidence And Synchronicity Stories

Sometimes Things Happen Because They Are Meant To Happen

I was looking through some of my old posts from 2010 and I came across the one from when my wife was trapped in Germany because air flights had been stopped due to Icelandic volcanic ash.

About Karin not being able to get home to England I wrote:

"... I went for a walk. Outside of my front door was a pure white feather. I have mentioned white feathers in previous posts and how, for my wife and I, they are a symbolic positive sign.

I placed the feather on the red chair inside the front porch of our house.

I walked up the valley where I live and saw a piece of wood in the road (see photo above). It was a cross section of a tree which must have been cut down, though I couldn't see from where.

For some reason I picked up this piece of wood (it looked like it had a happy smile!) and put it into my coat pocket. I had no idea what use it would be.

When I returned home the feather was still on the red chair and I looked at the wood. I laughed to myself that it was a bit like Iceland, where the volcano that was causing all of the problems was situated.

Then I noticed something else - there looked to be the shape of a volcano spouting ash or something on the wood."

All in all Karin was unexpectedly in Germany, where she was visiting her brother, for nearly a month. Her intention had been to visit for just one week.

Looking back on all of this with hindsight it turned out to be right that Karin should stay with her brother for a longer than expected. A few months later he died.

Karin and her brother weren't extra close, mainly because of a nine year age difference and her choosing to live in England. I remember though that when she finally got home she told me how her brother had tears running down his cheeks when she left, which was completely out of character.

To get to the point of what I'm trying to say, it does seem that sometimes things do happen because they are meant to happen - almost fate.

By being in Germany for so long Karin spent a lot of one-to-one time with her brother and they got on really well with lots of talks and walks. It was if her brother knew this would be the last time they would see each other.

I'm not saying one minute that the volcanic ash blew up to keep Karin in Germany. But the time she chose for her German visit may have been influenced by - well I'm not sure what. Maybe precognition or pre-programmed fate ... who knows.

It does seem, though, that outside influences can cause things to happen in certain ways, often for the best - but not always so.

As for the white feather and the piece of wood I found, perhaps these were symbols or indicators that the situation was under control and was happening for a reason. In this case so that a brother and sister could be together for one last time.

And going back to my 2010 post. I ended it by saying how I finally picked up Karin after her flight back to England, "The only odd thing was that, when we arrived home in the early hours of the morning (3am), the feather was no longer on the red chair. It had disappeared."

Other Fate Stories:
Tragic Deaths Illustrate How Fate Has Us At It's Beck And Call
Chance And Coincidence Don't Happen By Chance And Coincidence
It Was Written In The Stars That They Would Meet