I find that sometimes when I am constantly thinking of something, maybe something I watched on TV or read in a book or something someone told me, something related to that thing comes up in my own life as a strange coincidence. An experience similar to this happened yesterday.

Let me quote a story I read in Norman Vincent Peale’s the Power of the Plus Factor first.”

” One of the most remarkable men I ever met was a native of Lebanon, Musa Alami. He had been educated in England, his family had been quite well off until in one of the disturbances that periodically convulse Lebanon, they lost everything.( Here I must tell you , that Musa Alami belonged to  well reputed family from Jerusalem). Musa Alami found his way to the bleak desert country of the Jordan River fallen not far from Jericho.

This sun-scorched land had probably not changed much since the days of John the Baptist. No crops could grow because of lack of water. There were no funds or equipment to dam the river Jordan. But somehow Musa Alami, who had read of successful irrigation in other areas using subsurface water, became convinced that there might be water underneath the burning sands. And he announced, that he was going to dig for it.

Jeers and scornful laughter greeted this announcement. The old Bedouins( natives of the area) pointed out that the desert had been there from time immemorial. The water of the Dead Sea had once covered the region; the sand itself was full of salt. Musa Alami was a fool, or perhaps a mad man. And it wasn’t only the Bedouins who laughed. Government officials and scientists from abroad were equally scornful. No water was there. No water could be found there.

Nevertheless, aided by a poverty stricken refugees from the nearby Jericho refugee camp, Musa Alami started to dig.

With well-drilling equipment ? With steam shovel or earth removers ? No. He and his motley crew dug by hand, with pick and shovel. Down they went under the blazing sun. Day after day. Deeper and deeper, while onlookers jeered. Down they went, this dauntless man and his ragged friends, week after week.

What kept them going ? Hope kept them going. And with hope they had perseverance, just plain persistence.

I am sure it was the Plus Factor.

One day , six months after they started digging, the sand became damp. And a little deeper it was wet. Finally water, fresh water, began to fill the hole. And Musa Alami and his friends did not laugh or shout or cheer. The wept. An ancient Bedouin man said, ‘ Musa, now I can die. I’ve seen water come from the desert.'”

In those lands where great streams of water gushed out of the desert, Musa grew crops and fruits and truly made the land a land that flowed with milk and honey.

I have a friend who works with me who is from Palestine. I asked her yesterday, if she had heard of Musa Alami. A few moments of silence followed, Then she asked me, why do you ask?

I told her, I have been inspired by this man’s story for at least 15 years, ever since I first read Norman Vincent Peale’s book . She told me Musa Alami belonged to her mother’s family. He was an uncle of her mothers’. Her mother and father had planned to move to Jericho right after they got married, so they could stay near the UNRWA offices there. And so they had seen the plantations and the water themselves.

I guess for me, it was a more a moment of shock and surprise too. The very person whom I used to read about to my girls when they were little now seems to be someone who I might have met, if he was alive now through my friend. Do you believe in coincidences ?


26 thoughts on “Coincidences

  1. Life is a wonderment itself. There are forces at work we will never understand, and somehow they meld together fates etc. The coincidence of meeting someone that was a relative of someone you admired is an example.

    I remember my first wife and I traveled to Georgia to see a good friend of hers that she had attended nursing school with. They had not spoken for years just from both being busy. I knew that the wife had spoke to her friend to make arrangements for us to visit, and at that time she learned her friend had married a man named Ron, which is my name and we thought that was a neat coincidence.

    When we arrived at their house, parked in the drive was a blue Isuzu Trooper SUV. We were in our White Isuzu Trooper that we had bought 2 years earlier. They hadn’t spoken in years, yet both married men named Ron, and both drove the same type vehicle. It was absolutely amazing to me.
    The coincidence of you working with someone from so far away, and admiring a person from there, and they being related is just so astounding. Sounds like you are connected to the universe in a strange way.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I agree Ron- it is so difficult to describe the experience which is so special to us but so difficult to put in words. I can so understand the similarities in your case- the same car, the same name.
      In my case different countries, different nationalities but ultimately connected together by a thread which is so magical.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I meant that Faye. I cannot describe to you how much this man’s story has inspired me and my girls over the years, especially when life was tough and we had almost given up. And then one day, I meet someone who actually was related to the man.
      There was a time when I thought maybe NVP made this story up because I could find no reference to Musa Alami on google or anywhere else.
      I am so glad the story is true.
      For me, it is almost as if, it was meant to be.
      It has given me hope.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I once met someone in a chatroom who lived across the country. He did a work study program in the small town hospital ER that I worked in during the exact six weeks that I was out of the country on vacation.

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Thanks Susie! Posts like yours keep my uplifted and fuel my faith in God and perseverance. To make a dessert bloom…how amazing…and even more so…that you met a family member. God bless you and yours. Kathy

    Liked by 1 person

  3. bethanyk says:

    Coincidences, I have always thought, are God’s way of reminding us that He is intertwined in our lives. Divine appointments. I have these things happen all the time. So much that I am not as surprised by them anymore. I love when things that are meant to be come true

    Liked by 1 person

      1. bethanyk says:

        One night I couldn’t sleep and had no idea which direction life was going to take me. I drove at midnight to a park down the road and sat out there all by myself. I see a car drive up a few minutes later. It was my NOW husband who said he couldn’t sleep and just felt like he needed to go to the park. And 20 years later here we still are!
        Lots of little coincidences like we had a foster dog that i ended up being allergic to and my husband had to take her back to the rescue at the same moment a woman came in whose dog of 14 years had died and our foster dog ran up to her and she just knew this dog was meant to be hers.
        Someone in my lyme disease group online that has 13,000 members….I go to my lyme doctor on the same day she does and we were aren’t you in the lyme disease group that covers all of the US. Sure enough it was her and it was like we were old friends who coincidently met online and the in the doctor’s office

        Liked by 1 person

  4. I don’t believe in coincidences, I believe in the law of attraction. What you think about and feel more than think, you draw to yourself. So all those years of having those feelings about him drew you that close to him….amazing isn’t it!!! What a wonderful story Susie…and just goes to show, if you truly believe you will achieve!!

    Liked by 1 person

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