At the encouragement of my son, I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s an inspiring story; I liked it. A Spanish boy named Santiago meets, Melchizedek who instructs the boy to watch for omens. Apparently an omen can be a message from God and can carry great meaning, offering inspiration to a person if he or she is able to identify the omen, understand its meaning and act on its instruction. I consider an omen neither good nor bad–just simply a sign.

My difficulty with this is not the part about an omen being important or prophetic. The part I struggle with is knowing exactly how to recognize an omen.

Last night something happened that, at first, seemed like a coincidence. However I have heard there are no coincidences; all things happen for a purpose. A guy I work with asked if I had read The Shack (I have) and we ended up having a long conversation about spiritual things and even talked about my book A Forever Place. This was an opportunity for me to do some one-on-one marketing for my book, but the “coincidence” was this guy actually enjoys reading and discussing spiritual things. Was that a coincidence? Or was it an omen?

Then this morning my favorite coffee barrister asked me a question that came from nowhere. “Have you ever been to counseling?” (I have. It was good. Thank you, Margaret!). My Barrister and I have never had deep discussions about personal matters, but I guess she felt comfortable enough to ask about my past emotional struggles. We ended up having a meaningful conversation about counseling and I was grateful to share my experiences. Was it a coincidence? Or was it an omen?

One of the routes I drive on my way home from work includes a long, banking curve on the interstate that allows cars to continue through the turn at 65 m.p.h. This evening, as I drove home from work, a motorcycle was in the outer lane and the rider and I accelerated at the apex of the curve, both at the same time. Was it a coincidence, or an omen?

It seems that I could interpret just about anything to be an omen. A song that comes on the radio, a particular shirt a co-worker wears, whether the trash can is full or empty, etc. Someone recently told me that there are no coincidences. All things happen for a reason and a purpose.

But which “signs” are truly omens from God or messages from the angels, and which day-to-day events are simply Life Happening?

Inquisitively,
David Wine

My name is David Wine. I am 48. At my other job I am an accountant. I enjoy learning new things and my mind is in constant motion. Read more about me in ABOUT.

I wrote a book called A Forever Place and it is almost finished. It’s about two very profound dream experiences I had a couple years ago. Please consider buying a copy of the book for you and another for a friend.

One of the people helping me with this project suggested I start blogging about those dream experiences, maybe some spiritual transformation stuff and other related topics. At first I thought blogging would be difficult. I’m an accountant, not a writer! But now I’m discovering I actually have a lot to say. I think if I focus only on Spiritual Transformation, I’ll probably get bored, so I plan to discuss other related topics like meditation, the concept of God, my thoughts about learning new things, how big is the Universe, and other similar things.

The dream experiences I wrote about in A Forever Place actually happened to me. They were overwhelming (like when I delivered my youngest son when he was born). When I woke up from each of the dream experiences, my heart was pounding, my skin was prickling from goose bumps and I was breathing heavily. In each of the dreams “…I stared at Infinity and Infinity stared back at me.” –Very intense!– Also, “…I was not alone. Someone was there behind me and to my right, but I knew that if I turned to look I would see nothing with these finite human eyes.”

I wanted to write about these experiences in a way that was so descriptive you could be there with me in A Forever Place. I hired professionals to help me write in an appealing and descriptive manner and I very much want for you to experience the intensity of those experiences as much as I did.

I will try to stay on appropriate topics from week to week, but I may wander a bit now and then.

Join me in my life’s journey.

David Wine