A Glimpse of the Webs that Connect Us

I write about incidents “beyond coincidence” all the time, but whenever I witness one first-hand I still get goose bumps.

Here’s one that happened recently. Every year, my cousin Deniz organizes an Oscars prediction contest for her friends and family. She emails the ballot in January and everyone pitches in money to participate. That money goes to the winner, who can keep it or donate it to charity. This year’s charity, selected by last year’s winner, was the Animal Humane Society of Golden Valley, Minnesota.

I filled out my ballot with very little thought—I always make my picks based on actors I think are cute or movie titles that are pleasing to my ear! When I watched the Oscars, I was surprised at how often the movie Mad Max: Fury Road won. It picked up six awards, from Costume Design to Film Editing—more than any other movie this year.

The day after the Oscars, Deniz sent out an email announcing the first-place winner—her friend Jen Jett. The next day, Jen wrote an email to the group with her “acceptance speech.”

Jen’s dad recently passed away in August from pancreatic cancer, so the win was especially meaningful: 

“I would like to thank everyone who donated to the Humane Society. The donation is going to be in my dad’s name, James Smith. Here are some things that the Universe made me think about…

When I was making my decisions, I went all in with Mad Max. I hadn’t seen it, and I probably won’t. Dad didn’t see it…he saw the previews with my mom. He would have liked it…loud crazy cars.

Now, this gave me the chills—I hadn’t thought about it until now. I went with Dad to see his last movie, not that we knew that at the time. We were supposed to see Jurassic World, but for some reason we ended up at a different Max, a movie about a military service dog—and Dad loved dogs.

So, here we go…we saw a movie about a dog named Max, I was inspired to throw my lot in with the movie Mad Max, I won, and now the donation will go to cats and dogs.”

I couldn’t believe it! What a way to win. I emailed Jen to see if I could share her “mysterious ways”. She agreed and explained she’s been writing a lot about her dad these days as a way of grieving. She takes comfort in the fact that he’s with her son Grayson, who died six years ago at the age of 14 months in a car accident.

Read more: 10 Things Not to Say to Someone Who Is Grieving

“There are these connections that have reinforced my belief in something greater than all of us,” Jen wrote in her email. “Sometimes, like now, I see a glimpse of the webs that connect us.”

(Do you see what I mean about goose bumps?!)

What about you? Have you ever glimpsed “the webs that connect us”?

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