“Deep in the human unconscious, is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense.  But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

Frank Herbert

 

The day started the same as any other Saturday.  I slept in, had a leisurely breakfast and made it to the gym by 8:45.  Per our usual routine, my husband and I went out for lunch, ending up at House of Pancakes.  The waitress brought us our omelets and my husband’s soda with ice. I became intensely involved in the process of eating.

 

And then it happened.  I was startled out of my focused concentration by a loud crash.  My first thought in my head was that I had clumsily hit over a glass on the table.  “Did I just do that?” I said out loud.  My husband replied no and I began to survey the situation.  My brain had difficulty processing what I saw.

 

There, sitting on the edge of the table was a half of a glass.  It had been split perfectly long ways and only one half was still on the table.  There were ice cubes still sitting in the half of glass. This detail led me to search for the other half.  Not finding it on the table, I looked down at the floor.  There, sitting upright, with ice cubes spilling out, was the other half of the glass, still in one piece.  I stared at it for a while and then looked up at my husband.  “Did anyone touch that?” I said out loud. Again he replied no.  Confused, I looked around me, searching for the answer. The people behind me were standing and staring at the table and then at the floor where the other half lie. Their eyes eventually came back to us confused. The man said laughing, “what were you thinking about?” as if my thoughts had shattered the glass.

 

Eventually, every table around me was staring at our table, and then staring at the ground.  There eyes wide, they just surveyed the situation with a confused look.

 

The waitress and a busboy came over to clean up. “I’ve worked here a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like that. It just split perfectly in two pieces.” I reiterated again that no one had touched the glass. The waitress laughed and commented that maybe they had ghosts in the restaurant. Yes, I thought, maybe it was my mom sending me a message. Being a pragmatic person, that wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind. However, I was frantically searching for any reason that the strange incident had occurred. Frankly, I was coming up short-way short.

 

A couple hours passed and I went up to my office to do some work.  I glanced down at my calendar and noticed the date for today.  And then it dawned on me; it was my Mother’s birthday.  My mind immediately went to the glass and then I shook it off.  Again, my logical thinking refused to accept such illogical thinking.

 

I called my son later that day and told him the story of the glass. I stated that there was no logical explanation for the situation. Not even knowing it was my mom’s birthday, he blurted out, “Maybe it was grandma sending a message.” It shocked me to hear him suggest that.

 

We all have an intense need to make sense of our world.  This gives us a sense of security and comfort in a sometimes-unpredictable universe. However, there’re times that they’re no clear-cut answers.  There’s no logical explanation. And that’s O.K.

 

I choose to take comfort in the illogical.

 

“The appearance of things change according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.”

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