Strange Coincidences

Photo by Bernadine Fox

Over the past few weeks as I ran around making Christmas happen here, I have had the oddest experience of running into the same people. People I don't know, have never met except in passing each other out about in the world.

There was the women who was on the elevator when I got in at my doctor's office building. It is a highrise with about 12 floors to it. The women was impeccably dressed and got off on my floor in error and immediately got back on as I went on my way. An hour and a half later, I ran into the very same women at Kingsgate Mall several miles away.

Another woman attended the Women's Winter Faire. She didn't really do much more than glance my way and again a couple hours later I observed her taking in the sights at the Burnaby Heritage Village Museum.

A third woman was at the Dollar Store checkout in front of me. She was buying Christmas ornaments and went to great lengths to explain to the cashier that she had lost all of hers in a move recently. Two hours later I watched as she crossed the street in front of my vehicle on Renfrew and 1st Ave.

A fourth woman, I crossed paths with outside a 20-some floor building in downtown Vancouver. She went in and up as I waited for my companion. 15 minutes later, I walked into an office and there she was as well.

Coincidences? Yes - definitely. Odd? Yeah. Really incredibly odd? Probably not. But it does make me wonder how it is that two people who do not know each at all can have their lives cross paths twice in the same few hours encompassing distances that make it extremely unlikely. How many other people does this happen day-in-and-day-out where we don't even notice?

Life is strange sometimes.