An amazing thing happened the other day…


As the preamble to this, I think I should mention that I am VERY
protective of my two cats, Hermes and Shelley. Anyone who knows
me probably thinks I go to absurd lengths. However, they are
basically my sons, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

One thing is that they never go outside by themselves. I take
them for walks in the garden with a collar and lead. The rest of
the time, when they want to be outside, they can stay out on the
two balconies of the house's upper floor.

Anyway, here's what happened…

It was close to midnight, and I had just changed into my pajamas
to go to bed. I'd left Hermes, my eldest, out on the front
balcony by himself and so I went out to call him in. However, he
was nowhere to be seen. Then I saw to my horror that the balcony
gate, opening onto the staircase down to the garden, was ajar.

Hermes had disappeared in the middle of the night!

I rushed frantically back in and got dressed. With torch in
hand, I rushed down to the garden and started calling for him. We
have a pretty big garden, and I searched everywhere to no avail.

I thought, maybe he has gone down to the main road (which would
be dangerous with all the cars, and the fact that he had never
been down there by himself). So, in pitch darkness, and with the
torch failing already, I made my way down there.

My state of mind was anxious. Not only does Hermes not go out by
himself, he does not know the area outside of our garden well,
since we moved to this house from elsewhere. By contrast, Shelley
DOES, because he came to us from this area one night, as a stray
or abandoned cat.

Anyway, no Hermes.

I returned to the house, getting really anxious by then. And
then, just as I came through the entrance drive, I saw him
crouched down at the corner of the house. He's an incredibly
smart boy, and had probably never left in the first place. As he
saw me coming, he disappeared again, which prompted another
minute of concerned searching until I finally located him on the
staircase leading back to the balcony.

He led me back up, I closed the gate, and all was well. He got a
big hug and kisses, and a mild telling off about how worried I
had been. When he came into the house, Shelley rushed to greet
him. Hermes then lay down full length on his side in the corridor
and remained like that for five minutes or more. I imagine that
it had been stressful for him too, or else he was concerned by
the level of agitation he had caused me.

However, here's the eerie thing, and the whole reason for telling
you this story…

I was thinking about how dark it was outside, and the fact that I
would never have found him out on the land. Then I asked myself,
but isn't there a moon today? Then I recalled that the news had
said there would be a total lunar eclipse that night.

I wondered if it had begun or was still on, or was finished. So I
searched for the moon and, sure enough, there it was… a dim red
color.

Then I realized something really amazing. I had been searching
for Hermes precisely during the period of totality of this lunar
eclipse.

Now, apart from the fact that the gate being open remains a total
mystery to me, as it definitely hardly ever happens… apart from
the fact that the last time Hermes had been accidentally out by
himself was in October 2003 (i.e. almost never)… and apart
from the fact that total lunar eclipses are extremely rare… and
apart from the fact that there just happened to be one that
very night…

Hermes had gone missing and I had gone hunting for him precisely
during the period of totality! What are the odds of something
like that happening by chance?!…

And as if that was not enough, it just so happened that March 3rd
2007 was my mother's 75th birthday too! It's also the day her own
mother was buried thirty one years ago.

Honestly, this is synchronicity at its most uncanny.

It's like every so often, the universe decides to remind you that
there is more to it than meets the eye. It's like I'm being
reminded that this is truly a universe of meaning, of
intelligence, of inter-connection. Perish the thought that it is
just a random bunch of molecules and energy, governed purely by
the laws of chance!

If you have eyes to see, you can truly open to the psychic nature
of the universe.

This incident was a reminder to me of all of this, as well as the
need to take the time to value those we love as, at any minute,
they could be taken away… even by the most unlikely sequences
of events.

I share this story with you in order to give you some inspiration
that we do live in a universe of meaning. Ponder it for yourself.

This means that it is capable of responding to you, in line with
your predominant thoughts and wishes. A story like this, and
those you experience for yourself, will hopefully inspire you to
live with a sense of wonder and appreciation for the mystery that
surround us in every moment of our lives.

Copyright 2007. Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved.