Holy Cows

Do you ever feel like someone out there is trying to tell you something? Be it God, Alah, The Divine Goddess, or just the Universe, do you ever feel like one or all of them is subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) trying to get a point across?

This is something that I've been living and thinking about for years. I can't tell you when I first experienced a well-timed message, but I do remember when I first realized that maybe there was more at play than just sheer coincidence. It was almost 10 years ago, after my grandmother passed away, and I started to notice that when I would think about her, I would hear a certain song on the radio. I know what you're thinking - songs get played in heavy rotation on the radio, so that's nothing strange. But this wasn't just any song, it was 'What a Wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong, a song from 1968. When was the last time you heard 'What a Wonderful World' on the radio? This quiet reassurance still happens from time to time, and the messages haven't stopped there.

Most recently there was the gollywobbler message. Intrigued? This was a strange message, to be sure. My Mom and I were heading to the Honda dealership in Natick, and our conversation led us to a former customer of hers at the marina. He passed away a few years ago, but during our conversation my Mom mentioned that years ago he had had a boat named 'The Gollywobbler' docked at the marina. That same morning I read a Thrillist: Boston daily email (the same Thrillist: Boston email that I usually delete before reading) about the new Sea Dog brew pub in Hull, that serves Old Gollywobbler Brown beer. Gollywobbler. Sometimes when you think you have nothing in common, along comes a word like Gollywobbler to remind you that you really are two of a kind.

Admittedly, not all the messages are good. One of my most recent messages was more of a rude awakening than happy coincidence. In June I was in a car accident that I was very lucky to walk away from. I fell asleep driving on a road I drive almost every day. The accident site itself is practically in my back yard. Today when I drive by the spot it's hard to tell there was an accident there, but a few days after the accident that wasn't the case. The guardrail was visibly scuffed, and the road showed tire marks from my sudden braking. My Mom and I were driving home from work, down that road and we slowed to look at the accident spot. It was the first time I had been by there since the night of the accident. We saw the shoe that was flown from my trunk upon impact, the marked up road, and the general debris that any accident leaves behind. And then we saw the license plate of the car in front of us. SRVIVR. Seeing that license plate made me sick to my stomach. All I could think was, message received. Loud and clear. Yes, it's easy enough to say that was a coincidence, but every other 'coincidence' I've experienced tells me otherwise.

They haven't all been other worldy or ominous. In fact, today I was thinking about one message that made me laugh more than any other. Oreo Cows. The name oreo cows is a Jill Sandy moniker, and I had never heard about them until Vermont. In the fall of 2009, Jill and I took a road trip to Vermont just for heck of it. We only had a few hours to take everything in, so we decided to deliberately get lost in the countryside. We drove down roads that I thought for sure would swallow my car whole, but we managed to get down every one of them. Road trips are great for story telling, so Jill was telling me about her last trip to Texas and seeing what she called Oreo Cows, aka Belted Galloways, and her cowboy friend's disgust at her choice in nick name for them. So we're driving and laughing at her redneck faux pas, when we turn and see none other than a pasture of Oreo Cows. In all my life I'd never seen one, real or virtual. And then, as if we'd conjured them up, there was a whole field full of them. Again, message received, loud and clear. We were meant to be friends, in that car, driving down that road, talking about Oreo Cows.

That's what is so great about the messages in my life. They confirm the existence of 'meant to be'. Whether it's a connection to my past, a life lesson that I have to learn, or proof that I am meant to have these people in my life, every one of the messages teaches me something, and reminds me that I'm not alone. That there really are people looking out for me, whether I'm aware of it or not. Seriously.