Clicking

I don’t believe in a higher power. I don’t believe in fate. I want to believe in karma, but I don’t. But sometimes, things fit together so perfectly, that you have to wonder if there is some crazy connection. Serendipity squared.

On Sunday night, I applied to study Psychology at uni. On Monday, I saw an offer on Freecycle of Psychology textbooks in Merrylands. I responded straight away, and the reply came back straight away with an address. Which was less than 500m from my front door.

I went to pick up the textbooks on Thursday afternoon. I met Ruth, who is a retired psychologist, and academic. She was lovely, and offered to help me with my homework! At this point I began to feel that this was really happening. I was going to go to uni – how could I not with such a positive “sign”.

And then I got home and checked my email. There was an email from UNE, and I logged in to my account to find out that I had been offered a place in the Social Work degree – and missed out on my first choice. Yes, a smart person would have thought a bit more about preferences, but hey, it was all very last minute.

But when I missed out, it just didn’t feel right. One of those “this isn’t the way this is supposed to happen” moments. Like when I went into labour with Archimedes. Not RIGHT. Not OK.

I couldn’t do anything to change the outcome for my beautiful Archie, but I could do something about this, so I did.

And in other news…

This is what happens when a small boy with good suction comes across a small Yakult bottle. Photographed in Hyde Park after Miriam’s birthday lunch.

When I was a kid, my maternal grandparents would collect spare change throughout the year in a big glass jar. Mostly copper coins, at the end of the year we would carry the jar on the train to Martin Place, where my grandmother would take us to the beautiful Commonwealth Bank Building. We’d meet Dad, who worked there, and he would put the money through the big counting machine and add it all up. It was then divided by two, Adam and I would each get half to buy ourselves a christmas present.

Then we’d have lunch (usually at the Woolies cateteria, or fish and chips that we would eat in the park). And then Nanna would take us to St Mary’s Cathedral, where we would light a candle. Nanna would pray, for Michael, for her mother, I never knew, but I knew it was a special place, and meaningful to her.

So after we had Miriam’s birthday lunch (at Bodhi, where Mark & I had our wedding reception almost 7 years ago), I took Inigo to the cathedral, where we lit a candle for Nanna, and one each for Archie and Aubrey.