Happy (Belated) Equinox!

My infatuation with strange coincidences began nine years ago when I started teaching and researching the interconnectedness of natural systems and their cycles. The vernal and autumnal equinoxes provided semi-annual opportunities to raise awareness of random connections, small and large, within our social systems. Along the way I realized that Portland's experience of the equinox occurs a couple of days before the actual celebrated global equinox. For instance on this 'first' day of Spring, the sun will rise in Portland at 7:13 am and set at 7:22 pm resulting in an unequal 12 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. I know it sounds like I'm a stickler for details (and I am ), but a pattern of chaotic community alignment has surfaced on the experiential equinox, and this year that vernal day occured on Wednesday of this week rather than today.

Wednesday was a classic Spring day start to finish: sunny, still, warm and fragrant with a general buzz around town. My work day began at the neighborhood coffee house, Crema, where my green building appointment was a no-show. Although this cancellation could have been frustrating, while waiting I happened to read about an upcoming Clowns Without Borders performance on noneother than March 20 (the 'first' day of Spring!). Tonight will be our third year enjoying one of our family's favorite performances in Portland, and every year this poorly advertised event catches our attention last-minute.

During the lunch hour, I was out skateboarding errands around the Pearl District and ran into Pablo, a former message therapist, at Tanner Springs Park. We crossed paths a few months ago, and I later regretted that we didn't exchange contact info, so this time our chance encounter was much appreciated (especially for my future health and well-being). I started skating loops around Tanner Springs Park regularly a few months ago as a therapy for an ankle injury. It's a pretty lonely park with nary a visitor which makes it great for escaping into skating.

But, on my second loop around the park, I ran into our family friends, Sonja and Vinny, soaking up the sun. Visits with those two are always robust with energy and inspiration. Five-year-old Vinny tried riding my board and discovered that wiping out can be half the fun of leraning to skate.

Back at Ecotrust in the afternoon, I ran into Shawn, an enlightened Mathematics professor, and his wife Lori enjoying lunch in the sun. Our brief catching-up quickly evolved into a long, hopeful conversation about the potential for alternative socioeconomic systems that benefit humans and their environments collectively. Back in my teaching days with Shawn, I developed a hypothesis related to the cyclical nature of population growth: the rate of mutually beneficial encounters is inversely proportional to the rate of population growth.

So as population stabilizes (which it is) the frequency of strange coincidences increases exponentially, and hopefully we are just at the tipping point of all this synchronicity stuff.

The sun is rising and Lilly just gleefully shouted, "Mama and Dada, Happy First Day of Spring!", so I better get back to the real world.