Pardon me while I wax philosophical...

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, when you make a decision everything seems to fall into place to support it? Or you keep having random encounters with the same person?

There is a Japanese word, en, whose meaning is based on a Buddhist concept of karmic connectivity or bond. You need it for a connection to work. Intention (in) is not enough.

I read about the concept on Thursday. On Saturday night we got together with all of our old friends
(in NC) . The parents talked; the kids played. As people talked about the chance meetings that brought them together and kept them together I remembered all of the chance encounters that kept reinforcing the connections we made while living in Carrboro. On the drive home we talked about how easy it had been to make friends and connections there...

I feel like something has been missing here in Atlanta and it might be that feeling of 'en.' Does that mean that I am trying to force my life in the wrong direction? Even if I have a connection with someone I meet, the universe seems to conspire to keep us from building on it. For example, every time Elle calls me or I call her to get together the other is always busy or something comes up last minute. We have no en.

So maybe I need to try something new. Focus on something different.