Shuffle Synchronicities: Volume 1.5 - #366

"So Many Years" by The Gospel Clefs, The Gospel Harmonettes - 01/27/22

Jan 28, 2022

"So Many Years" by The Gospel Clefs, The Gospel Harmonettes

So I took a break yesterday from the Shuffle after the #365 post on Tuesday.

And, I’ll be honest, a part of me wondered if I stopped participating in the daily ritual, would ‘my’ abandoning of the practice, result in the spirit abandoning it, too.

I realize that just sounded like I was Sex in the City, LOL.

Or in meme form:

LOL.

I talked to my inner voice/Holy Spirit/Comforter/Self about it, who said, Not to worry!

And, indeed, today, I got this gospel song which literally has the chorus:

Said He wouldn’t leave me
All my days

Once again, no joke, no lie, this was the shuffled-to-song.

Another line is:

Jesus in the habit

Which seems to refer perhaps to the female singers as well as nuns and their religious ‘habit’.

But the double meaning for me, personally, seems to be about the ‘habit’ of this now somewhat daily Shuffling practice/ritual.

The therapist also pointed out that Enneagram 7s, like me, are often ENFPs ‘not’ INFJs, and often see signs and meanings (synchronicities) where others don’t.

And that this ‘ability’ could be seen as either meaning-making or meaning-seeing.

The therapist added a comment from biblical scripture about how Jesus seemed to say something, like, ‘don’t insist on seeing signs and wonders for faith’.

However, I looked more into that scripture and some interpretations say it means more like, ‘signs and wonders are everywhere you just have to see them’.

So perhaps it’s another both/and ???

I Googled ‘Signs and Wonders’ and Father Richard Rohr.

And found the following question from a reader of his:

Rohr responded:

I appreciated Rohr’s comment that our future isn’t “definite, certain, entrapped, which is hopeless”.

Because sometimes I perhaps get caught up making too much meaning out of romantic pop songs in relation to my relationship with my now-ex-wife.

When Rohr says that Jesus said that ‘You are going to do greater things’.

It made me have faith that no matter how my life, romantic and otherwise, goes.

I can be happy.

The Shuffle went into the next song and it was a joyous jam by highlife and palm wine guitarist and singer from the Sierra Leone, S.E. Rogie, who I previously wrote briefly about vis-a-vis Vampire Weekend sampling his work, at the end of post 266.

“Recipe for Truth and Lasting Happiness” by S.E. Rogie

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This song seemed to speak to the idea that the reliance on the ritual/practice doesn’t have to be rigid.

Because even though it was strange to go a day without it.

It was a very happy day.

Because I practiced many of the ingredients of the recipe that S.E. Rogie sings about:

I am happy

If you want to be happy
And you're always happy
Every morning when you wake
And before bedtime
Bless the universe
Take a deep breath
Then exhale and say
I am happy, very very happy

Because I love me, I love my family
I love my neighbors and my associates
I love all of humanity

I am happy

Whenever you feel despair
Sit quietly, close your eyes
Take a deep breath
With strong determination
Tell your troubles to go to hell
Tell the devil to go to hell
Tell your heartaches to get lost

Clap your hands, beat on someting
Dance a little bit, sing loudly
And say, I am happy
I am happy
Are you happy?
"Oh yeah, we are happy"
Play that saxophone for me, play that trumpet!

Happiness is a state of mind
Happiness is the harvest of a quiet and peaceful mind
And only love can achieve that state of mind
So love others as yourself
And that is, wish for them peace, joy, health, and prosperity
If you're searching for true and lasting happiness

Mama mi!
I'm so happy
I don't know what to do with myself
Papa pi!
I'm happy
I'm happy
Happiness

Such as…living the golden rule… So love others as yourself.

Especially in the SubstackGo program which I am ‘proud’ to announce today that I was invited to join.

It connects Substack writers with cohorts of other creators and also Substack Community Managers who help us learn how to use the platform to achieve our goals.

Yesterday was a first day of introductions, where I read and subscribed to other Substackers’ Substacks, and we wrote messages of support and praise back and forth.

As S.E. Rogie sings:

I was so happy to be communing with this new community.

‘Because I love me’!

My ‘family’.

And my Shuffle Synchronicities reading ‘neighbors’!

And my Substack ‘associates’!

And ‘all of humanity’!

Then again… a lot of Rogie’s ingredients are rituals/practices themselves.

Such as…mantras…Every morning when you wake/And before bedtime/Bless the universe/Take a deep breath/Then exhale and say/I am happy, very very happy.

And…meditation…Happiness is a state of mind/Happiness is the harvest of a quiet and peaceful mind

So maybe rituals/practices and signs/wonders can co-exist like psychoanalysis and religion.

Or in meme form:

This was the first meme I saw when I just opened up Instagram.

So it was sort of an Insta Synchronicity.

Which made me think I should try out a bit of:

‘we’re making memes now’ content.

Which I plan to workshop in this SubstackGo platform too.

After seeing @carljungmemes’s repost, I then followed @iamfuckingmagic and saw some more of their memes.

I loved this one:

I texted the meme to a friend who had told me a friend of theirs told them not to use the phrase 'all [animals]’ in a children’s book they are writing because it’s unwittingly unPC.