It all started with a joke.
What does a dolphin put on its peanut butter sandwich? Jellyfish!
If you followed my instagram post from earlier today, you’ll know that one of the kids during my library class visit read me this joke from a National Geographic book about dolphins. It had lots of information, graphics, and a few jokes, like this one. Fun, right?
Then, later that day, my boss came back from a library conference and told me she’d been to Ripley’s Aquarium while she was in Toronto, which I love visiting when I’m there. And what was her favourite thing about it? The jellyfish.
I didn’t really think much about it at the time.
But later that evening, my dad visited us, and I was showing him what fun our Amazon Echo could do. I asked Alexa to tell me a joke. What did she come out with? You guessed it….the same joke about the dolphin and the jellyfish.
It rattled me. I live in Canada, it’s winter…jellyfish aren’t typical conversation around here. And what are the chances that I’d hear the same silly joke twice in one day….from VERY different sources?? Yeah….it must be up there in the realm of possibility about as likely as I’d win the lottery.
But it got me thinking. Is the universe trying to tell me something?
If you’ve ever done Julia Cameron’s THE ARTIST’S WAY, you’ll know she talks a lot about observing things around you. It’s what gets our creative juices flowing, but it might also lead us in a direction we’ve just been ignoring. Her explanation is much more in depth (and if you’ve gone through the twelve weeks of her course, you’ll know….it’s about digging really deep), but the sudden occurrence in one day of this very random thing must mean something.
Am I supposed to do something with jellyfish? Unlikely. Should I be taking a trip to someplace warm to swim in the ocean? Again, very unlikely, and unlike me. So what does it mean?
Maybe it’s as simple as….are you paying attention? I’ve been in a sort of limbo this past year, with lots of heavy personal things going on. Yesterday was the first day in a long, long time that I felt really happy. Like, really happy. Maybe the constant mention of jellyfish was simply a startling reminder that there are great things out there, that I should be paying attention, and that the world is a fun and beautiful place. Maybe I needed that reminder.
So, I’m not going to start a great novel about jellyfish, or begin a wall-sized painting of the creature, but I might just keep my eyes open a little more, and enjoy the nice things–the unexpected things–that happen on a daily basis. That’s easy enough, and it’s something I can do each day.
What do you think about coincidences? Is it the Universe guiding you? Or is it just a glitch in the Matrix?
