By Francisca Hernandez
Thursday, June 13, 2019
I keep getting confirmation that there are no accidents, and nothing is a coincidence. What I’m experiencing these days are cooperative coincidences or collaborative synchronicities and mutually assisted circumstances. This week was a perfect example.
I’m a creative soul, and I get disinterested quickly. I might have shiny object syndrome. Well, earlier this week, I was bored. I’d been listening to a lot of Alan Watts on Saturday. Although I pretty well versed and agree with the idea that everything is connected, it kept playing over in my head in the days that followed.
The way he presented the ideas that everything is synergistically essential to the Universe, including you and me, along with the idea that we are the Universe experiencing itself through ourselves, had me in full contemplation mode.
Everything is synergistically essential to the Universe.
So for the next couple of days, when I was in a moment of boredom, I’d ponder my importance in the seemingly dull situation. By Tuesday evening, I was bored with my contemplation and was getting ready to go into hermit mode.
I’d been working on a few projects during the weekend and had put off going to the grocery store. It was around 8:00 PM, and I knew my mom would probably be asleep by the time I’d finished buying her groceries.
But my intuition nudged me not to put it off much longer.
I drove to the Kroger’s two blocks down from my home and put the items on my list in the shopping cart. I got in line and realized I’d forgotten Rocky’s peanut butter. So I got out of line and went to the aisle. Then I realized I’d needed to get some for myself too. I stood there comparing labels and was kinda getting annoyed with myself for taking so long, but again my intuition told me to take my time. So I did.
I got in line and gave the sacker my reusable bags. Then I carefully separated my mom’s groceries from mine. Before I had a chance to tell him that it was the same purchase, but I wanted them bagged separately, the sacker had already started bagging everything together.
Again my intuition told me to slow down and let it go. After all, I wasn’t in a rush, and I could separate it in the car.
So I took my time checking out even joking with the cashier and sacker about my RX Bar addiction.
Slow down
I walked to my car again in contemplation of the synergistic importance and dependence of everything in the environment.
As I stood outside of my, separating the groceries, a man in his late twenties approached me. At first, I thought he was going to ask for money.
He looked high and/or drunk. Instead, he said very slowly, “Ma’am can you call 911? I think my uncle had a stroke.”
While I walked to his truck, I started wondering why he didn’t have a phone. I had a thought that it might be a scheme to try and take advantage of. However, I felt a sense of overwhelming, calm flow over my body.
Then I remembered the feelings I’d had earlier to slow down. So, I took a bite of my maple RX bar and set it on the car next to the truck.
I peeked in and saw a man in his 50’s barely breathing.
I calmly put my fingers on his carotid and couldn’t feel a pulse.
I dialed 911.
“This is 911, do you need medical, fire, or police?” the operator asked.
“Medical please, A man in 50’s with a low pulse is barely breathing in his truck. I know CPR should I start chest compressions?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“He’s upright in the truck. Should we take him out and lay him on the floor?” I asked.
“Only if you can safely get him out, otherwise, lay him flat in his seat,” she replied.
I asked the nephew his name. He told me it was Angelo. Then I asked his uncle’s name. He said it was Robert. I told Angelo that we needed to get his uncle out of the truck and lay him on the floor.
So I moved out of the way so he could start trying to get him out. In the seconds Angelo was doing that, I reminded myself that we were all in this together and nothing is an accident.
I took another bite of my RX Bar and moved it to the top of their truck.
Angelo was struggling with getting his uncle out of the car, so I went to help him. I grabbed his legs while the boy took his upper body. We positioned him between the truck and the car on the parking lot floor. The nephew wanted to pull him further out. Another man came to help pull him a bit more. Angelo wasn’t satisfied and wanted to pull him further out.
We have to start chest compressions.
“We have to start chest compressions, Angelo,” I objected as I knelt by his side.
“Place your hands on his chest in between his nipples and start pushing 1-2 inches into his chest with the bottoms of your wrists on my count and don’t stop until I say so. Ready?” She asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“1,2,3,4,5,6…..”she counted.
Around 30, the man on the floor gasped for air. I stopped the compressions. “He’s breathing,” I said.
“Wait! Now he’s not anymore!”
“Don’t stop. Keep going with the compressions!” She directed.
I put my hands back on his chest and started pushing down. “1,2,3,4,5,6,7…..” the 911 operator counted again.
The man gasped for air, and his eyes opened slightly. Then his eyes closed, and his breathing went shallow again. I reported this to the operator. To which she responded, “Keep going.”
The firemen arrive, and the truth comes out.
Then, in the background, I heard the sirens of emergency vehicles. In a few seconds, six firemen were on the scene taking over.
The firemen asked Angelo and me whether there was any drug use. I explained that I didn’t know them, and I was just helping. Angelo hesitated.
“We’re not the police.” the fireman said “We just need to know. This is life or death.”
I encouraged him to tell the truth so they could save his life. Then he slowly responded that they had been using heroin.
By this time, a crowd had gathered, and the nephew was crying. He asked me to pray with him. Although I don’t pray, I held his hand while I looked on as he cried and prayed.
The man that had helped pull Robert out further brought us some bottled water. He wheeled my grocery cart over to me and told me he had shut my car doors.
Now, Angelo was leaning on me and gasping for air in between his sobs. While I was showing him how to breathe deeply, one of the firemen walked over. He looked irritated as he and told him, “Hey! Get yourself together, man.”
In about 2-3 minutes, they were able to get the man breathing, alert, and had him loaded on the stretcher.
This was no accident.
The same fireman that had reprimanded the nephew walked over again and said, “Look, man! Your uncle’s breathing. He’s fine now. Stop your crying. Let me tell you something.” he pointed at him “Another couple of minutes with no oxygen to his brain, he’d be brain dead. You’re lucky this lady was here to save him and call us when she did.” Then he walked away.
I turned to him and said, “This was no accident, Angelo.” I looked him in his lost, droopy, drug-induced, eyes. “Nothing is. Everything happens for a reason. The fireman is right. Your uncle could be dead right now. But you’re not lucky, and neither is your uncle. I used to drink and do coke. I don’t anymore. If I was still drinking, there’s no way I could have helped you.”
For a moment, I thought I saw recognition in his eyes, and then his pupils constricted, and then he was lost again. “Thank you, thank you, you’re an angel.” he slurred with a faraway look in his eyes.
“Is he going to the hospital?” Angelo distractedly asked the fireman.
“That’s a yes,” he said sarcastically.
“He’s going to St. Joseph.” another fireman said.
I asked Angelo if he needed a ride. He said he’d called his aunt earlier and she said she was going to come to get him. I knew he was lying to me. And it didn’t really matter. I had done my part.
I wheeled my cart over to my car and began separating my groceries from my mom’s. Two of the firemen came over and started talking with me. They were surprised at how calm I’d been during the whole incident.
“So you didn’t even know them? What a coincidence that you were here to save him.” one of the firemen asked.
“Nope,” I said. “It was divine timing. Nothing is an accident.”
“Whatever it takes.” the other one responded.
As I drove to my mom’s house, I thought about how everything played out.
How I’d put off going to the grocery store over the weekend.
The way I went back to get the peanut butter.
How something kept telling me to slow down and take my time.
The way the groceries wouldn’t get separated when I wanted them to.
The fact that a wave of calm flowed over my body at the perfect moment.
The desire Angelo had for his uncle not to die.
The possible desire that Robert had to stay alive.
The fact that the fire station is only six blocks from that Kroger’s.
My desire to find meaning in life a few years ago.
The urge I had to stop drinking and using drugs last year.
The cashier and the sacker’s part in taking the time to joke with me.
The 911 operator, the firemen, the choices they made that led them to that specific into that moment in time.
The culmination of many more infinite circumstances.
How I had been pondering the synergistic importance of myself and the connection of all things in the Universe.
I never cease to be amazed by this Universe.
I never cease to be amazed by this Universe. I always get an answer to my question. Whether I’m paying attention or not is up to me. So, these days I listen a bit more intently. And though I’m not always in the receiving mode, I have more discernment than I did before. I can hear and see the answers more often than not. I’m so glad I’m not the one in charge. I’m grateful to know that it’s not up to me to fulfill or keep track of every desire.
All I have to do is let go and allow myself to be one of the channels through which the Universe experiences itself.
I’d love to hear from you. Have you experienced cooperative coincidences? Comment and let me know.