It was exactly 1:08 in the afternoon. I was sat with a couple of friends at a cafe when the question of, “what next?” arose. This inevitably led to a glance at the time-piece replacement that we all carry now. Our mobile devices. Which of course have several other distracting features.
In order to respond to my friends question I had glanced at my phone and seen an overdue message. In essence it was saying that I had “Maybe’d” to an invitation to a talk in a nearby town and that the talk was starting soon.
Some very quick mental calculations along with an internal – emotional – search of the Desire to Attend cupboard produced a “let it go” result and I told my friends, “nothing much, just some food and home.”
We parted company and I headed towards a food outlet. Minutes later I was in my car, sans food and heading to my rooms. Even as I drove, there was a nagging thought at the back of my mind…
“Go to the event…”
I looked again at the time, 1:25. There was no way I could make the event. It started at 2pm and the traffic going into the town would be atrocious. I arrived home and filled the fridge with food whilst considering other, more available options for the afternoon.
“Go to the event…”
The event in question was a talk about the poetry of the famous heart-centered poet Rumi. Paying particular attention to the aspects that related to Sufism. Both are topics that I am interested in, hence the “maybe” response I had given to the event invite.
The time was 1:35 (or thereabouts) and I decided. Okay, I would make the attempt. To save some time I opted for the train rather than drive option and got back into my car, headed to the station. I caught the train and considered the near future. All things considered I would arrive at the venue around 2:30, the event would be 30 minutes in and lasted for 2 hours. Why did I set off on this journey?
“Go to the event…”
At 2:20 I found myself walking down the busy road towards the venue. My mind was made up. I would attempt to look in on the hall where the event was. If there was a way to enter without disturbance I would do so, otherwise, I would enjoy the shopping and the flavour that the city had to offer. At 2:33 I was looking into the darkened hall and determined that I could sneak to the back without too much disturbance.
Alas, that wasn’t the case since the floor boards were amazingly creaky. However I did make it to the back and sat down to enjoy the last 2/3rds of the talk.
“Go to the event…”
It wasn’t meant to be. Only a few moments after I seated myself a couple sans two young-uns came and sat right next to me. Nothing wrong with that until the young-uns brought out packet after noisy packet of sweets.
Can you imagine it? They were constantly on the threshold of noise. Just enough to annoy and yet not continuous enough to get me up and moving. For about thirty minutes I eyed a seat two rows in front of me. That was my seat I thought again and again. Just waiting for my moment.
“Go to the event…”
It was 3:30 and there was a whiff of conclusions from the speaker. I had not moved and had spent some time appreciating the aspect that I was at an event talking about Love and the very need to practice it towards the aforementioned family and young-uns.
Not to mention the constant attention that I was paying to the seat two-rows in front of me. Then, at an unbelievably late hour, a lady arrived and sat in the seat in front of me, obscuring my view of my seat.
“Go to the event…”
She must have been a kindred spirit because moments later she glanced back at the annoying young-uns. However she didn’t have the patience or perhaps she valued the talk more and after a few more glances back (at the noisy young-uns) she moved into my seat!
The first (of two) things that I want to point out is that there is a rule about signs. That rule being…a sign is only a sign if the person seeing it thinks it’s a sign. I know, a bit convoluted, but trust me. It will save you endless hours of argument, debate and chatter.
The second thing that I want to point out is an episode that resonates with the above. After all. So what? This lady sat in the seat that I had been observing all of one hour. Is there a big deal here? Well, it harks back to a trip I tool once to the US of A.
Due to a tale that is too long to relate here. I was on a plane to the USA from the UK. Also due to the same circumstances, I had a whole row of seats to myself too. A boon, one might think until you realise that I am quite gregarious in my approach to travelling. So having no one to chat to is like locking up a Kender…a dangerous pastime to be sure.
About an hour or so into the flight and I was bored to the hilt and ready to cause mischief. One of the tools in my kit bag for just such occasions is a deck of Tarot cards. Digging them out, I began to shuffle them, looking for a mark. Or rather an interested party.
Who could I read for? Was the thought on my mind. Then a strange thing occurred…my attention settled on a seat that was two in front of me. Why did it catch my eye? I have no idea. But the thought entered into my head. Yes, who ever is in that seat is the person that I should read for. I could just make out that it was a lady, apart from that, nothing.
I played with the deck some more but no one seemed to be moving past my row of seats and so I drifted off into sleep. I guess it was about an hour or so later when I awoke. Freshening myself up with the essential lemon-fresh wipes I again looked around for Tarot reading customers.
Someone passed my seat and I reached out in the universal sign of Free Tarot Reading Here or some such and persuaded the lass to sit and have a reading done. Yes, I know what you are thinking. But it seems to work for me quite well, I can magic up people for Tarot readings almost anywhere (a plane) and almost anytime (UK to USA flight).
If that wasn’t exciting enough, the Tarot reading proved quite successful and I was delighted to share the rest of the trip chatting with the recipient – alas whose name escapes me. Finally the pilot declared that the plane was on approach to the airport. At this time the lass decided to return to her seat.
Did you guess?
Yes! She walked a couple of rows over and sat down in the very seat I had been drawn to. I was flabbergasted! What are the chances? A coincidence of course!
My point of telling this story is that, how I felt about that seat on the plane was how I had felt about my seat in the lecture hall. Was there any significance to the person who had come and sat in it? Was I drawn to this event? Could I have not come to it? Where was this path (if any) leading? I certainly felt that I had been drawn to this place. Was it to that seat and the lady therein too?
What do you think?
Kal
