Pay attention to synchronicity

My father died at age 53. I know this won’t come as a big surprise if you’ve been reading 37days for a while.

But you might not know that today, May 12, is the 26^th anniversary of that awful day in 1980. Sometimes it passes wordlessly, but it is always in the background, always.

As I left the house today on one of my Child Chauffeur Trips Around Town, I found a package in the mail basket on our front porch. I love to get mail; have I ever mentioned that?

The package felt like a book.

“What have I ordered?” I thought to myself. It must be a book about firetrucks that I bought for Tess’ third birthday, coming up soon. But as I ripped open the mailing envelope, I was unprepared for what I found: an advance copy of TV journalist Tim Russert’s new book, Wisdom of Our Fathers, with a note inscribed inside: "To Patricia, your Dad on page 192! Best always, Tim Russert."

A year ago, after the success of his book about his own dad, Tim Russert put out a call for stories about fathers. I submitted a wee little essay about Daddy for consideration. It was a story that emerged from an essay I had first written here on 37days.

From the 60,000 letters and emails Russert received with Daddy stories, as I opened to page 192 today, I found out that my story about Daddy’s too-soon, too-young death was chosen to be included. My essay, "The Salute," is a tribute to a small-town barber who was so much more than that.

I pay attention to synchronicities; this seems like one, doesn’t it?

Imagine my surprise, in this windy spring day and clear sun on our front porch, opening that package from my green rocking chair, finding that book, seeing that inscription, reading my story—and then, suddenly, with a deep shock and then a wide smile, realizing that it arrived on May 12th, the anniversary of the very day he died.

Patterns, sense, synchronicities.

For you, Daddy.