People Keep Running Into Me...

Welcome back, fellow Rogues.

As you can see by the cover, I’m creating a new segment titled “Rogue Thoughts”. Genius, I know.

The content here is a little more casual and comes from a personal perspective. It's like my life journal, so I hope you're ready for the madness I face constantly.

For this entry, I'll take you down my rabbit hole to talk about coincidences and timing. Let's begin with a simple question.

How many times does something have to constantly happen for it to stop being just a coincidence?

To clarify, I’m not talking about the things that you have full control of, such as your daily habits and patterns. No one makes the decision to turn on the faucet, wash dishes, and then wonder why their hands get wet. That’s obvious.

I’m talking about our unconscious actions in random, uncontrolled environments. In my case, people can’t seem to stop themselves from running into me...

For example, nearly every other time I’m about to turn a blind corner, someone suddenly appears out of thin air. Now we're both in this weird stand off, sizing each other up, until the parent catches up and I'm no longer aggressively glaring at their 10 year old.

“Excuse me, pardon me” they’ll say.

Or how about this, I make my way towards an exit only to find it being blocked by someone tying their shoe or checking their phones. In other words, being super inconvenient and taking up too much space for me to simply squeeze by.

Thinking ahead, I dash to another door and end up crossing paths with someone else walking in at the same time I was trying to walk out...

“Excuse me, pardon me” they’ll say…

Another example: I look both ways to cross a parking lot. The path is all nice and clear until a car backs out of nowhere right in front of me. I’m then forced to stop and bake in the Texas heat for an extra 20 seconds or choose to take a more inconvenient direction.

“Honk, honk” it says…

Worst of all, 90% of the people I speak with want to interject with those beautiful “um, like, uh” to let me know their minds are hard at work before I finish my sentence.

It's one thing to block me in person, but to block the flow of conversation? Now that's just rude.

Enough Is Enough.

I have to document this in some form so that 10,000 years from now when my books are unearthed from my tomb, there will be proof that I wasn’t entirely insane. This happens at least once every single day I wander into the world. It was cute at first, but now I have to say something.

Is this some kind of sign? What are these constant obstructions supposed to represent in my life?

Brief disclaimer for the manifestation crowd: I don’t wake up with the thought of people becoming unintentional obstacles.

Believe me, if I really could manifest things with the power of my thoughts, I would manifest the exact opposite.

I’d also banish mosquitos and have unlimited pizza.

Luck, Coincidence, or Madness?

I hope I’m not completely alone in finding this strange. It’s simple to understand how synchronicities work in our plane of existence and it all begins with close examination. Listening. Watching. Waiting…

Like a stalker.

Except not the creepy type that stalks innocent people. You’re stalking yourself basically, and that's fine. Right? Right.

I have various examples of when time, space, and reality all met.

In 2018, a curious series of events led me to find the exact amount of money I needed to cover a bill on the floor of a crowded bar. How this obvious pile of cash escaped the eyes of the other patrons is beyond me.

Just days later after I handled my immediate problem, I unexpectedly “lost” the same exact amount through a completely unrelated event. An event that by now didn’t have nearly as much of an impact on me financially. I simply expressed my gratitude, and let it all go.

This was a perfect cycle where my needs were met with an unexpected "loan" before having to pay it back.

Boom. Math.

The same year, my old car breaks down but I was thankfully blessed with a new one. I didn't have a parking sticker for it yet, so I couldn't park inside the apartment complex I lived in without running the risk of being towed.

(Suprise: I did it anyway.)

I parked there for two days until one night, I had a heavy, unprovoked and surgically precise sensation compelling me to take the sticker from the old car and place it on the new one before I went to sleep that night...

Sure enough, like clockwork, the tow company came and took my old car to the yard like a thief in the night. I never went back to recover it but considered it a fair trade in exchange for not having the new one taken away instead.

Had it not been for this little signal I received, things could've been way worse. I gave thanks and moved on.

Those examples had happy endings, so I’m now trying to understand if this constant crossing of the paths also means something bigger. If it’s meant to prepare me for something to come or a lesson to learn about myself.

Initially, I thought I was overthinking this, but it can no longer go unanswered because it's just too obvious and far too frequent.

Speaking of which…

Plot Twist: What If I Am THEIR Obstacle?

Maybe this has nothing to do with me at all.

Maybe, I’m the vessel through which the universe has chosen to speak to these otherwise unsuspecting strangers. Maybe it's ME who is getting in THEIR way…

I could very well be preventing some kind of catastrophe for these people and not even know about it.

Those extra few seconds they spend trying to figure out how to dodge me might also force them to be a little late. Which means they now get caught at a stop light.

Because of this, they now had to wait a little longer to get to the next intersection where, just seconds before, a horrific multi-car collision occurred.

So, hypothetically, being "on time" could have proven to be fatal. Grim, I know. But hey, wouldn’t that be something though…

Pay Attention

In closing, keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your synchronicities attached at the hip. Keep an eye out for these and other breadcrumbs along your path.

There are certainly some things we don’t fully understand that still have an active role in our lives, whether we like it or not.

Some signs are definitely more obvious than others. I know with enough practice and discernment, you might be able to use these mere "coincidences" to your advantage and walk a more meaningful path.

You know, the one where you have unlimited pizza and don’t have to wonder why everyone keeps getting in your way or cutting you off.

I'm positive there will be a second part to this story, so stay tuned.

~

Want to learn about spotting the "signs"? Read my book The Art of Patience, Gratitude & Courage to begin living a simpler, more meaningful life.

Stay sharp and stay alert.