Omens

I have a fairly narrow view of the world; I am not a religious person, and am generally not shy to admit that I embrace no spirituality whatsoever, a sensitive topic, to be sure, but I tend to enjoy a little controversy now and then. I do not believe in fate, or in a ‘meaning of life’ – in my opinion, we are all just a cosmic accident. I rarely if ever believe that the universe is trying to tell me something, but once in awhile a ‘curiosity’ occurs that challenges my belief system (or lack thereof) in a tiny, almost imperceptible way. One of these incidents occurred to me in the early stages of my trip to Indonesia but I had forgotten about it until recently.

There was a massive storm in Solo the other night while I was meeting at the house of one of Solo’s expats and business owners. Our meeting took place in his courtyard under a beautiful antique teak shelter. During our meeting we needed to go inside to escape the fury of this storm (which had winds so strong it managed to follow us inside regardless) and I forgot my laptop bag outside. Fortunately I had left the laptop itself at home and brought the bag only so I would have access to paper, pens, etc to take notes during my meeting. When I remembered to retrieve the bag, I had to climb my way across the remnants of the tree that came down in the courtyard as a result of this storm. The bag was soaked and I needed to dry it out. The contents were undamaged but it was so wet that even after a day in the powerful Indonesian sun it was still damp. The next day, when I did a further search in the bag, reaching down deep inside, I found a little piece of newspaper I had torn out of the Globe & Mail on the plane to Chicago.

While reading the newspaper on the flight I happened to spot an ad from the government of Canada announcing a new online system for Canadians traveling abroad to register themselves in order to be informed of emergencies in their host country and at home, which was coincidental enough, given the timing, though not enough to change my entire belief system. However, when I got to the horoscope section – for fun and nothing else, believe me – I saw this:

“Taurus (April 21 – May 20): There will be times over the next few months where you wish you could just get up and leave, but with so many people depending on you that really isn’t an option is it? Tough times call for tough individuals and tough tactics. That’s your cue.”

I don’t remember tearing this horoscope out of the paper, but there it was, soaked through but not destroyed, in the bottom of my laptop bag. I will openly admit, I have read the horoscope about 30 times since I found it… but that doesn’t mean anything, right?