I often say that I don’t believe in coincidence. But I definitely believe in synchronicity.

Synchroncity is a term generally attributed to Carl Jung, who is the psychiatrist who was kind of the founder of the intellectual movement that has driven my intellectual life. He defined synchronicity as a”meaningful coincidence.” It is exemplified by common experiences like when you have been thinking about someone that you haven’t communicated with in a long time, and then they call/email/text/whatever. You pick up the call, etc., and say, “I was just thinking of you.” And you both kind of laugh, because you both kind of feel connected in that moment that you can’t explain.

To me, synchroncities are events or items or people or whatever that are connected, but not in a way that can be explained in our physical “cause and effect” universe. I think they are things that are connected in some energetic or spiritual plane that we don’t know or understand. But to me, at least, that doesn’t mean they aren’t real.

Last night, I had a dream where I was staying in a hotel with a one of in-real-life friends and some other imaginary third person. My real friend had ordered room service because we had missed dinner and advised me to order soon because they stopped taking orders in half an hour. I was looking at the menu when somehow some of my friend’s dish spilled onto my foot. She was very apologetic, but I assured her that it felt “soft and warm” and I was fine.

I keep a dream journal, so I wrote that up this morning. I realized I had never even heard of the dish, let alone tried it. But it sounded great, so, trusting in synchronicity, I thought I should make it. It was a side dish, so I didn’t know what it would go with, but it just felt like I should make it.

Then, as in almost every Saturday morning, I went to the Cary Farmers Market. In addition to the promise of our first fresh local farmers market STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!!, and the lovely greens of the spring, I was looking forward to something I had ordered from Locals Seafood. I have been getting WONDERFUL NC tuna from them the past few months, but this week, they were offering tuna collars. So I HAD to get some.

Fish collars are the meat that comes from along the clavicle/shoulderbone. They don’t do a lot in a fish, apparently, so they are fatty and rich, with a bone to keep them moist and hard to over cook. They don’t have any tiny bones to deal with; it’s just meat and bone. I had never even heard of fish collars before I saw it listed on the erasable board for our Local Seafoods vendor. The seller explained it to me and gave me suggestions about how to cook it. So I tried it and…it was SO FAB! So since then (maybe 6 months ago), I try to grab a fish collar when I see it there (although they are limited, so you can’t get them every week).

I am on Local Seafoods pre-order list, and I had ordered 2 tuna collars. However, I was overcome with what I got.

Hard to see, I know. But here are a couple of pictures to give it context.

All the other fish collars I had gotten were roughly the size of my hand. But this one was more that a FOOT by a FOOT. Looking back, I think DUH…tuna are BIG fish. So their collarbones are going to be big. But I didn’t think that at the time.

Local Seafood, the wonderful organization that they are, allowed me to just take one of the collars because I thought couldn’t eat that much before it went bad. It is a rare delicacy, and apparently is going fast, but still, I appreciate their flexibility.

As I was driving home, thinking about how I was going to cook this fish, I suddenly remembered my dish from my dream. I realized they not only went together perfectly, but how to flesh things out into a perfect meal. However, I needed a few other ingredients. So I turned right around and went back to the Cary Farmers Market.

Where I bought this:

Just to clarify….that is arugala on the top, spring onions transversing the picture, parsley on the far right, and local home baked pita bread at the bottom.

Any guesses what I’m making? Put them in the comments below.

Stay tuned for the meal my synchroncities led me to make.