Something occurred a couple of months ago which I found to be meaningful. I had parked my car on the street in front of my daughter’s house where I had planned to leave it for her to use during the day while I was at work. I would take a bus to work from there. It had snowed the night before and there were several inches of fluffy snow on the street. I was holding the keys to my daughter’s house and was also holding my car key in the same hand. I got out of the car and opened the back car door to get my purse and suddenly I noticed that I was no longer holding the car key. I didn’t think I had set it down but I searched the car seats, my coat pockets, and my purse, and the key was nowhere to be seen. My daughter came out of her house to help me look for the key and she too didn’t see it. I also searched in the snow in the area where I had been, just those few feet beside the car. Then I heard a horn honk and saw that a snow plow was coming our way to clear the street, the driver sounding the horn to tell us to move the car. I walked to the driver and told him what had happened and since I had had the key just a few minutes ago we should be able to find it. My daughter and I continued to search to no avail, and then the young man who was driving the snow plow walked to where we were and made some suggestions of where we might look, such as between the seats. Then he looked in the snow and to our wonderful surprise, he found the key! We moved the car and he cleared the street of snow and I walked to the bus stop.
I found myself thinking about what had happened from time to time during the day and thought about it on different levels. How nice it was that the man took a few minutes to help us when he didn’t have to and when it delayed his work. So it was special on that level. And I also thought about it on a more symbolic level. I have felt a calling to begin writing a blog for a long time now, but I have been stuck, not able to get a sense of what I should write about, having many excuses of how difficult it would be to add yet another thing to my busy life, and so on. But I wonder if losing and then being given the key on that day was symbolic of finding the key to starting my blog. A key unlocks things, and I hope and pray that the part of me who knows it matters that I write has been unlocked. It feels like it has. A key also starts car engines, making it possible for a person to travel to many places. Symbolically, therefore, finding the key that starts one’s car opens up new horizons so to speak, and the expression “open new horizons” implies exploring and possibilities and stretching oneself. I think it’s also significant that the key was found by someone I do not know who was willing to help. That man seems to symbolize the positive masculine aspect of myself who is a part of who I am and who provides assistance to me. Carl Jung writes about synchronicities which are meaningful acausal coincidences. My losing my key and a helpful man finding and giving it to me is one of those meaningful and thought-provoking happenings. The key was a gift from a stranger who unlocked my need to give, and I’m giving you my words in this blog.