Two strangers & a moment of synchronicity

Happy Sacred Sunday!

Have you ever had a moment when a series of seemingly unintentional and unrelated events unfold, and you end up experiencing an incredible coincidence that, in hindsight, feels divinely connected?

That, my friend, is a moment of synchronicity.

Back in September, our Five Fingers took a trip to Maine for my cousin’s wedding. If you read these Sacred Sunday emails regularly, you may remember me telling you about that trip.

One of the annoyances of the trip was that my kids were not happy with the flight we had booked to return. Welcome to life with teenagers who have many opinions (cue eye roll). Throughout the weekend, they kept asking if there was any way we could get home earlier since they had school the next day and they like having time to ease into the week. I kept brushing them off and saying, “You’ll be fine.”

But then, on the night before we were leaving, my oldest, Orly, said, “Mom, would it hurt to just check the airline and see if there are any better flights available? If there aren’t, it’s fine. But why couldn’t you at least look?”

That felt like a reasonable request, so I agreed to check, fully expecting not to find anything.

But there it was. One flight. A 6am departure that, even with a layover, would land us in Miami at 11am. (There are no direct flights to Miami from that airport.)

Even I agreed it was a much better option than the one we had, which got us home in the evening and came with a long delay.

I called the airline, and the agent told me that changing our flights would cost about $1000. No thanks. But then she added, “Or you could go standby and get on the flight for free. There’s no guarantee you’ll make it, but you can try.”

“Is the flight full or is there room for us?” I asked.

“There are five seats available right now,” she said. “It’s 11pm, so you just have to hope no one books between now and 6am or gets on the standby list before you.”

Five seats. Exactly. What are the odds?

I hung up, gathered my family for a meeting, and laid out the factors.

We’ll have to wake up at 4am.
We won’t know if we can board until we’re there.
If we don’t get on, we’ll be stuck in the airport for six more hours and still get home in the evening.
If there are delays, we could miss our layover flight and still get home in the evening.

Knowing all of this, do you want to take the risk just to get home early?

My husband and boys agreed unanimously to go for it.

We went straight to bed, and the next morning we were off.

From the moment we got into the Uber at 4:10am, there were several hiccups that could have caused us to miss the flight. The biggest one was that the first flight was severely delayed, which left us with almost no time to make the second.

When we landed, we rushed to the ticket counter only to realize we had gone to the counter for our original booking, which was for a different city. It took a minute for the flight attendant and me to understand what happened. Once he gave us the correct gate, it was on the other side of the Philadelphia airport, which is huge.

We took the tram, ran with our carry-ons, and arrived just as they were closing the flight. The attendant had already thrown our standby boarding passes into the garbage can. We were the last people to board.

It took all of this for me to meet the man who is my guest on today’s podcast.
A man who desperately needed to meet me at that precise moment.
A man whose life had just taken a devastating turn and who was praying for help.

It was an incredible coincidence that Orlando and I landed on the plane this man was on.
Or was it a coincidence?

How many moves, decisions, delays, and nudges did it take for us three to meet?

All I can say is that I don’t have all the answers, but I choose to enjoy the mystery.

If you’re craving a story of hope, synchronicity, and the power of following your intuition, this episode is a must listen. Join me and my new friend Carlos from the airplane as we share a story that can restore your faith in humanity and remind you that grace can find you even in the mess.

Sending you so much love today and everyday,

P.S.  As we approach Thanksgiving, I want to take a moment to thank you. Thank you for reading these emails each week. Thank you for your replies and letting me know this work matters. Thank you for being the reason I get up every Sunday morning to share these moments of clarity. I love you.