Mormon Synchronicities

I really don't know

I’m going to take a page out of William’s book and write about some strange synchronicities happening to me at the moment. I’m not used to registering them, so maybe these don’t even qualify as synchronicities or are not that special according to the basic laws, I’m not sure. But they do feel significant enough to register. It also might get a little confusing, but anyway, bear with me (or don’t). The topic is mormonism.

First, the setting. I’ve written about my finding and engaging with mormon theology before. Now, today, I noticed that I happened to tweet out the sentence ‘It’s not an exaggeration to say that Joseph Smith saved my life’ exactly two years after writing that article (May 18th). This was a complete coincidence, and again I only noticed it due to other synchronicities that happened today.

Now, on May 19th, I was speaking with my friend Sean precisely about how Joseph Smith saved my life because he asked me about it. I guess I should say something more specific about it. There are a lot of tie ins to personal history but the short of it is this: classical theology was paralyzing to me, and mormon theology freed me to act. It unlocked doors I didn’t know were there. I was at the lowest point in my life for a lot of reasons and I am sure that, in a way that cannot really be explained logically, it gave me the courage to act and change our lives in ways that we could not even imagine. So much happened in these last two years that it’s hard to grasp it all. And all of it is tied to Joseph Smith, at least in my mind and heart. Hence I began praying to him during that time, for inspiration and guidance, and have kept the habit since.

I had mentioned it before to my friend, but it came up again in that conversation that for a while now I’d been trying to draw Joseph Smith, in a kind of iconographic style, because I feel that images help with focusing prayer. I’d failed miserably so far, but that very same day I did one that I was more or less satisfied with so I shared it with him. I am quite self conscious about my talents in this regard, so normally wouldn’t share it publicly, but due to all these synchronicities I feel it’s important and will overcome my shyness even though it’s incomplete and not good enough.

Then today, out of nowhere, and in the space of ten minutes, two completely unrelated people I deeply admire and respect, and who I’ve learned a lot from though in completely different ways, sent me messages asking me about Joseph Smith, and how he influenced me, and why. They were both perplexed, in a way, but also said that they’ve had good experiences with mormons, and that they felt curious about my devotion, and about the ideas.

And that reminded me of yet another synchronicity. Last year in June I woke up thinking about the King Follet Discourse and with a sudden inspiration to write a novel about the last days of Joseph Smith. Later that day I found that it was the anniversary of his martyrdom. And just yesterday I was speaking about it again with my wife, partly because of the drawing, and partly because she is finishing the last revision of my new novel and we were discussing future projects.

All of this means something. But what, I have no idea. If you do, please tell me.

PS: I had the idea of searching for happenings in mormon history on this day, given all the synchronicities, and found this: