The Rosary and the Mountain: Adventures in Synchronicity

I'll start this article with a strict disclaimer: I have no desire to push my beliefs on anyone else and absolutely no interest in getting people to adopt any particular ideology or religious belief. I am quite interested in spreading kindness and love in the world though so I thought I'd share this interesting story.

I'm still a little mesmerised by the whole thing and haven't quite worked it all out. I maybe never will. On one of the few sunny days in April I set off to the Mourne Mountains, Newcastle County Down to see if I could run/hike up the tallest of the Mountains in Northern Ireland: Slieve Donard. I was trying desperately to climb the mountain in under an hour: a mythical challenge myself and a few other hikers have set ourselves. The link below is a video of my effort! Up Donard in an Hour I reached the summit in 1 hour 9 minutes panting and out of breath. Deeply happy though to get out in the wilderness and soak up the sunshine. I sat down for a minute, basked in the Sun and looked out over a cloudless blue sky over the Irish Sea. Faintly in the distance I could see the outline of Scotland.  Gathering myself together I set along back down the path and back the way I had came.

In no particular hurry I enjoyed the descent. Stopping by the Glenn River stream and drinking ice cold fresh mountain water: it tasted like nectar on the hot day. As the descent went on I got a little bored and in my pocket found the small Rosary ring that was a gift from my Father. Taking it out I decided to say a little bit of the Rosary as I descended the mountain. For those unfamiliar with the Rosary a link giving a description of it can be found on Wikipedia here:Rosary Wiki.

Essentially it's a set of set prayers (Our Father / Hail Mary) said whilst meditating on parts of the Christian Story. Like a mantra it finds its own rhythm and steers your Mind and Soul into a higher state of consciousness. As I rambled down the hillside my cadence actually began to match my repetition of the rosary. Often the rosary is a doorway to what is often described as a "flow" state: effortless, peaceful, contemplative and joyful. During my meditations on the rosary I thought about the practice of forgiveness and how I have implemented this spiritual practice in my own life. Importantly I also thought about how I failed to implement this in my own life. As I repeated the rosary I thought specifically about a particular person who caused me very real harm and upset relatively recently. I had struggled with this greatly and it took some measure of self-control and mystical grace for me not to exact violent revenge on this person. Somewhere in the repetition of the rosary I decided to forgive the person and move on.

Whilst I made this very conscious decision I was still aware of the well of hatred and anger that sprung up in my chest every time I thought about this person. And so there on the hillside, jogging along in the fine sunshine I opened the hurt and let the rosary wash over it: like disinfectant. Don't get me wrong, we don't have to like people to forgive them. I still think the person is a scumbag of the highest order. However the decision to forgive is often more about yourself. It's definitely done for yourself and is a very special gift you give yourself. Finishing both the hike and the rosary I entered the town of Newcastle. The streets were lined with many families out enjoying the sunshine. I walked on down the Central Promenade. Nearly at the car I stopped and did a double take on the other side of the road: it was the person who I had thought about during the rosary! This man lives on the other side of the country and would have no reason to be anywhere near Newcastle. Two thoughts struck me: 1) I could/should kick this man into a coma here on the central promenade. 2) I forgave this man up the mountain.

For a brief moment I weighed the two options up. I felt the adrenaline kick in raring the body up for boots and fists to fly. And then I decided that I had forgiven the man but my feelings just hadn't caught up yet. That's the misconception commonly held: we can forgive people and still struggle with the residual anger. I looked directly at the man, and he at me. I needed to be sure that I wasn't mistaken. I was certain. I nodded and walked on up the promenade. The odds of this person being in this place at this time were practically zero. Psychologist Carl Jung referred to this concept as synchronicity. The idea that perhaps the Universe isn't quite as random as we think it is. Perhaps it was all coincidence. Perhaps the nature of reality is manifested by our own consciousness. Did an Angel and a Demon place a bet when they saw me saying the rosary on the hillside? Who knows? All I know is that it was a particularly profound and mystifying experience. One that made me question greatly our ability to affect the reality around us by intention: either through prayer or mantras, mindfulness or affirmations. Perhaps we can greatly affect the world around us.