Do you believe in guides or angels?

A very short while ago I would have said that was just a silly idea people make up to comfort themselves. I've always been a big Richard Dawkins fan, if that makes it all clearer. And I still am - I love nice, clear logic, well-presented, and I know how desperately people try to fool themselves.

But I also know for sure that the universe is full of things we don't understand and can't even recognize because we've pushed them out of our consciousness about the time we found out santa was fiction and the tooth fairy was mom and nobody is going to pull that stuff over on us again.

The past several weeks have been full of little disasters in my life - you know, computer not working, laptop not wanting to stay connected, miscommunications, flat tires, you get the picture. And I get this nudge to check - and this will make me sound even wackier to Richard - whether it's mercury retrograde. Yes indeed it is. Ends today and is back to full normal rotation early October. The site I happen to choose randomly is really well written, with a nice perspective that mercury retrograde isn't just about those little disasters, but an opportunity to revisit things.
So instead of getting frustrated with all these things, I've been thinking, well, what led up to this point and how can I redirect my life moving forward? Nice shift.

The flat tire was actually Krissy's as she was leaving for work. She called me and said she was pulling over into a church parking lot and would I come help her change the tire. I get there and we move everything out of the hatch of the prius and open the utility space and...there's no doughnut tire. She never had any occasion to check before. We are standing there looking at it blankly when this man drives up and says "can I help you?" and I say, "well, probably not unless you have a doughnut tire for our car because it isn't there." He says "No, but I have a tire repair kit and a compressor. I'm the pastor of this church and I have a garage out back." He takes off the tire, fixes it, puts it back on, checks the pressure on all the tires and adjusts it. Then he asks Krissy what field she works in (she had mentioned it was her company car).  I had previously mentioned that I work with a little girl - did not mention that she had autism - and Krissy said she worked with people with disabilities. It turns out his church is opening a school for children with autism. It's already approved and they're getting the funding.

And I won't even tell you about the dream I had last night because then I will truly seem pretty crazy, but I'll just say, the world is more complicated and interconnected, and life is full of things, that aren't explained by what we think we know, and some of the things we know aren't easily explained either.