yesterday was my mother's birthday...She's an astonishingly young and vibrant 50 something now....

I was driving around to different thrift stores, trying to piece together a costume for my uncle's Halloween party. I wanted to go as Morpheus from the Matrix, but I couldn't find the pieces I needed.

As I was driving I passed by Pier One, and thought..."That would be an interesting place to get a gift for Mom."

As I opened the door to let my daughter out of the car, I noticed how absolutely filthy my floors were...There were old food boxes from god knows when, a t-shirt from that my brother had brought back from The Bahammas, a mound of old receipts, molding orange pills, old emptied yogurt containers (yoplait whips!), and god knows what else. For some reason I pondered the fact that I hadn't let down my back seats in quite some time, and as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it was gone from me...

In side the thrift store my daughter kept stopping to look at all of the wierd stuff on the shelves as I begged her to continue to follow me. My primary objective was to find an old old black leather or vinyl coat, an absolute necessity for the costume. This was to be our inal stop. If I didn't find what I was looking for here, I'd just wear the goon mask I'd baught the previous night for trick or treating. As my luck often has it, there was a leather coat on one of the racks, and the look of it was just about perfect, except for a few tears here and there, but hey, it's just a costume, and it was probably nothing I couldn't fix with a judicious application of vaseline to blend the imperfections. Then I saw the price! $29.99...HELL NO! I wasn't about to pay that much for a tattered old leather jacket. I left the store, defeated...

I went home for a bit and played "Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory" for a while. I had called my brother earlier to find out what he was going to be doing for the day, and whether or not he wanted to go in on a gift for our mother together...We both decided that something for around $100.00-$200.00 would be sufficient, and decided that he would call me when he was ready to go shopping...As I played the game, I began to wonder when he was going to call. So, I called him, and he told me he had just finished up what ever he was woking on in his office and that he was heading for the University City Loop to start looking.

We met up in the loop at the Smoothie King shop. His wife was inside ordering, so I sat inside in his vehicle, watching all the passersby getting rained on. Both of his kids were sound asleep in the backseat...My mind began to wander...There was some talk show on the radio...A musician named Oliver (what was his last name?) had passed recently, and one of his friends was talking about him...The host mentioned my uncle and my father, apparently they had played together at some point...The was apparently very fond of my father's work, and regarded him as one of the best Musicians St. Louis had ever produced...It made me proud, and a little sad...I began to wonder how long it would be before no one would remember who he was...How long do people remember you after you have passed? After your friends friends have died and turned to dust, after your great great grand children who never saw your face, and only carry your name have children of their own...Are we lost forever to the forgetfullness of time? I wanted the world to know who he was...

My brother had already looked at a few shops in the loop, and he was conviced that we weren't going to find what we were looking for, so he suggested we try Pier One! Keep in mind that I don't shop there, ever...In fact, I have probably only been in there one time, in my entire life.

So, we went to Pier One to search for the right gift...He wanted to get her a table, but apparently, she had beaten us to it, and purchased one earlier. So, now we were stuck with the daunting task of trying to buy something to match it, without knowing precisely what it looked like, never having seen it.

Well, we couldn't agree on anything. So, we decided to try a different store...Initially, he suggested that we go all the way out to the other side of the county to check out another furniture store! I couldn't believe it...There was no way that I was going to drive there...I considered offering half the money to him, and just letting him pick it out. I told him it was a bad idea, that it was starting to get late, and we still wanted to have dinner with her, and make it to our uncle's party...He consulted with his wife for a few momnets and then emerged from his vehicle with a "bright" new idea..."Let's go to the store where she bought the table."

Ah, the pure genius of it! The store was only a few blocks from pier one, and I was certain we could find something fitting there.

As we walked into the shop I was pleased with everything I saw, and was inspired to ask the manager if he remembered my mother to see if I could determine which piece she had bought earlier.

I spotted a floor rep, and asked for the manager...She said that he was in the back, and that his name was Phil. I went to the back, and not knowing what Phil looked like, I began calling out "Phillip, Phillip, Phil?"

Finally this kid who was putting together a bookshelf turned around and said that he would get Phil for me...

I asked Phil if he could remmebr selling a table to my mother earlier...I tried to describe her to him. "Kind of short, very light complexion, and thin brown hair, she had a young girl with her, our sister, who looks like us." He said he rememebred and added that she had actually bought two pieces that afternoon. I asked him if he could show us the pieces, and he did...One was a black asian chest with gold trim, and japanese characters and artwork, and the other was a brown carved wood corner chest. We began to look around for something that would compliment either of the pieces, and finally settled on a Japanese four panel screen, depicting a mother panda with her cubs in a forest over a golden background. It really was very beautiful!

We asked the manager to wrap it up...My brother looked at me and asked if it would fit in my car, because his cherokee was full of stuff...I thought about it for a moment and decide that my focus could indeed handle the screen if I let down my back seats! In that instant the synchronicity of the recent events became apparent to me. The universe became smaller and larger, and I saw everything from without while being within....All matter existed in a point at the tip of my forehead, and time was a blink of the eye. The truth about life, and the truth about experience was clear to me...Everything was connected and evidence of a higher purpose was evident. There is no such thing as coincidence.