Author: Anne Heleen Bijl, TCP Board member, Trainer, Consultant

My life is rather full of remarkable coincidences.

Sometimes these miraculous events serve me as a compass, sometimes they just make me wonder and smile, proving that there is so much more in life: the non-linear, not scientifically proven, unexpected, mysterious, often humorous occurrences that enriches our life.

Some conditions and personality characteristics are helpful to stimulate the occurrence of special coincidence, synchronicities, and serendipities:

• When you are curious,
• Ask questions about what is going on,
• Act upon intuition,
• Connect with others,
• Move around,
• Set and/or state a desired goal with a good intention in your mind,
• Stay open to experiencing wonder

Also, by noticing the world when on your own, in silence, you can cherish the eye openers and enjoy them, wondering about their possible meaning for you. I’ll share a recent experience of my own that involved serendipity, synchronicity, seriality (repeated sequences of things) and even Human GPS (finding yourself in the right place at the right time, without having intended or planned to be there).

In August, I was traveling with my partner through the south of Germany, enjoying biking around the lakes near the Alps. After 2 days of cycling in nature, I said to my partner: “Something strange is happening, I noticed during these 2 days the license plates of cars with four equal numbers at the end, I had them all, like 5555, 7777, 8888 etc. And only 1:10,000 cars can have such a number! It is incredible, almost impossible, but still it happened. I only missed seeing 1111. Well, we are not going to see that one for sure.”

The next day we drove home, and had a full day of delays due to traffic. On the second day of the drive home, we got completely lost in the surroundings for an hour in an industrial area, instead of finding the romantic medieval city centre we sought.

My mood was getting grumpier by the minute, surrounded by nothing but empty parking lots with only a few cars in them, and a few desolated shops. Then I saw a café sign, not attractive but at least there would be coffee, so we made a stop there.

As I was staring out of the café window, still moody, my eye suddenly was attracted to a parked car right in front of us: “There it is!” I screamed, jumping of my chair, “the missing 1111!”

I ran outside to take a picture. Just after that, the car drove away, but what happened? Another car parked on the same spot, with number 4444! My mood changed 180 degrees. I became happy, singing, and continued being joyful the whole journey.

What deeper meaning could I find, besides that it made me feel so cheerful? Perhaps that alone is important enough. For me it was a sign that sometimes you think you are in the wrong place, even a bit lost, but it is exactly there where you have to be to find what you were looking for….

Postscript: The week that I was preparing to write up this blog, while driving I noticed my car dashboard showing the kilometers driven (200002 km) and the amount of fuel left (202 km), and I was amazed to see once again 4 in a row, 0000, in such a coincidental way. I stopped and took a picture. I am not sure of the meaning behind all these 4-number events, besides making me happy, but perhaps you have an idea, dear reader?