Signs to "Just Breathe"

Sometimes synchronicities (or meaningful coincidences) that are related show up in rapid succession. This usually calls for you to amp up your awareness because an important message awaits. Such is what happened when I experienced a number of "just breathe" signs, one right after another.

For two days, I kept hearing songs on the radio about breathing, such as Faith Hill’s “Breathe” or Duncan Sheik’s “Barely Breathing.” It was happening so often and at the most perfect times, such as the moment I got into the car and turned on the radio. Or one of these songs played on the overhead just as I walked into the grocery store. I was laughing about it because it kept happening. I know the importance of breathing deeply, and, when I think to (which I don't do often enough), remind myself to take deeper breaths.

On the following day, I went to get an oil change done on my car. The guy working at the service station was very chatty with me, and he went on and on about how he is trying to de-stress his life. He said, “You just gotta breathe.” Then he repeated these same words again, looking at me right in the eyes, and I knew he, like the songs, was another messenger, reminding me to breathe! Was I not breathing deep enough, only taking shallow breaths? I wasn’t feeling stressed at all, but perhaps I was about to be? Was I being warned about something?

Just then, another man working on my car came into the waiting room to tell me that one of my brake lights was out. So I had it replaced. As I was pondering all this while driving off, I came to a traffic light that had a red light flickering. Hmmm, just like my brake light, this red light was going out. I can’t recall noticing a traffic light flickering ever before.

I drove straight to my local café, named "Dragonfly," to do some work on my laptop. As I pulled into a parking spot, I saw in the reflection of the storefront glass that my headlight was out, now… just ten minutes after getting my brake light replaced! So I went directly to a different auto shop to get the headlight replaced. While in the waiting room, I watched a very dramatic scene from a movie I’d never seen before. The man sitting next to me clued me in to what happened prior to my arrival. As it turns out, this movie is called Dragonfly, which is the same name of the café where I discovered my burned out headlight. In the movie, a doctor’s widow tries to communicate to him from the other side, through his patients, and there is apparently much symbolism throughout the story.

I watched the Kevin Costner character (Joe) in a very dramatic scene as he started to drown but then was saved (this relates to the drowning-but-will-be-saved theme as explained in the chapter “What’s with Molly and the Rose,” in my book I Can See Clearly Now). By the way, as I’m writing this, the song "Kiss From a Rose" is playing on my daughter’s iPod; also very relevant to this chapter. Anyways, the man who saved Joe said, “You are lucky to be alive, Señor. You were not breathing.”

The next day I found myself in an extremely stressful and scary situation. I got all caught up in it, feeling great fear, and then suddenly remembered to… “just breathe.” To breathe deeply.

No doubt, I was being warned that something was about to occur. When I remembered to breathe, all was well. I could see things from a higher perspective and that things were playing out just as they needed to.

Synchronicities often hold a multitude of meanings and this one was not only giving me a glimpse of the future and a tool to handle the difficult situation, but also mirrored a couple of important themes in my book, I Can See Clearly Now.

May this set of synchronicities serve as a reminder for all of those reading these words… to just remember to breathe.