coffee cup, Canon A-1
I saw a man in the foam of my cappuccino this morning. It was a perfect line drawing like a New Yorker cartoon, just staring up at me. Do you think this is a sign?
I’m always looking for signs, secrets hidden in the details, in the ordinary-ness, that will show me the way, point me in the right direction.
Sometimes they are obvious. You might wonder if your idea for a book is good, if it is worthy of being published, and then an agent calls and asks to represent you. Clear sign the book should be made.
But most of the time, the signs are more subtle. Tiny, serendipitous events that could be chalked up to chance, but maybe, you think, just maybe, could it be… magic? It’s just too weird, right? This thing happening, then that, and it HAS to mean something. Or does it?
Several years ago, I was telling a friend at work that I wanted to meet my favorite singer/songwriter Ben Harper. I gushed at his brilliance, his sensitive lyrics, his gorgeousness. (Okay, I also had a teeny weeny little crush on him.) Anyway, two hours later, I left work, decided to take an alternate bus route home, and hopped on the 22 Fillmore. Guess who was sitting next to me? You guessed it. Ben freaking Harper.
I thrive on these things happening to me. They are like signs of a rightness about the universe, like somehow everything is going to be okay, because I am on my path, in the groove, flowing… It’s like a huge thumb rising up out of the clouds and shouting, “Right on!”
I get so deliriously happy when this happens. Now what do you think the little cappuccino man could mean?
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In some societies, it means bad luck when you’re talking about a thing, it works like a spell, like the bad eye. I personally am very superstitious when it comes to wishes and those things – I hate to talk about a project/something that lies ahead of me and is very important to me. I think, the more I talk about it in advance, the more bad luck it will attract and the project might get spoiled.
In Persia, there is a custom to burn a certain powder/herbs when you’re buying something new that might make others jealous (like a new car, house…those things). The smoke is supposed to fix evil thoughts and spells and take it away from you.
How did the man in your coffee look like? Sad? Mysterious? Happy? Old man, young man? You may be about to meet a male key figure – whether for your business, for personal growth…I hope you’ll write an entry when “it” happened, I’m curious now 🙂
[oh no…sorry for this long coment!]
That is incredible! I don’t know what to make of the cappucino man, but I do believe in signs.
I went abroad for a semester three years ago – to a college in London. I was miserable – hideously lonely – not sure what to do with myself, even though I was with friends. I called my boyfriend and begged to be allowed to come home. He of course said no.
So two weeks after I arrived, I took the Eurostar to Paris to see The Tea Party, one of my favorite bands. After the show, I got backstage and met the band – which spurred a whirlwind week of travel, following them from Paris to London to Amsterdam. It was incredible, spending so much time with people I truly admired and never in my wildest dreams expected to meet. I got back to London after all of that convinced that I was supposed to be there.
i think the little cappuccino man means you should call ben haper
and tell him to call your friend jen
and meet her for cappuccino.
Beautiful picture!
I totally believe in signs. Many of my friends think I’m looney…but I think we all receive many signs throughout our lives. The trick is to be open and courageous enough, and to trust our own intuition and follow them. I believe that your “cappuccino foam man” was there to guide you in some way.
wow..if believed I needed to take action after I’ve seen images in STUFF…I’d be……where…?….?
…what about the long, skinny, smoke-genie I see every morning while sitting on the toilet on unfinished plywood floor…?
….and what about the whales and fishes that swim on the mortar overflow around the chimney bricks in see from my bed every morning?
…for along time my son believed the dirt smear at the bottom of the stairs was where the tooth fairy crashed and left a wing print..
.I too get deliriously happy when this happens also…but then what?..it happens ALL the time!……..Fern..
….I LOVE your site….!
Perhaps it means that your next bus seatmate will be Juan Valdez? (Perhaps not. 🙂
Wow! You met Ben Harper? I’m so jealous.
i love the waving monkey in the window! it is fragile and beautiful and sad and naive and touching alltogether! lovely. thank-you
Oh yes! I do really believe in signs! Once when i was bored i surfed the net for my name violette…i was looking to see if the domaine name violette.com was taken. It was but i scanned the rest of the names. My eyes fell upon one in particular called Visiting Violette. So i checked out the site….it was a band in LA of very cool people. I e-mailed them and asked how they came up with the name…gave them a link to my folkart site and then told them that i too was the real violette. Anyways a band member e-mailed me back and said that he loved my art..and that the name was of a fictious person named Violette who lived alone, was eccentric…they went to see her when they needed inspiration and to remember who they were. So i was really surprised since my mission is to encourage people to embrace their uniqueness through the vehicle of creativity. So i wrote back stating this with the invitation to come and visit the REAL VIOLETTE. As it turns out the lead singer Lee was coming to Vancouver with her fiance in two weeks. They came to visit…..we hit it off and to make a long story short they hired me and a friend to design their cd “a hero’s day”. So needless to say i believe in signs!
I think the cappucino man is relevant and only you can come up with what that meant.
violette 🙂