I have done a lot of reading on syncronicity and "believe" in it. That helps me some with reframing and seeing possibilities. One exercise I've had lots of success with is when I wake up, arbitrarily expecting something good/exciting to happen today. Then, I wait and watch to see what it is going to be :-) One morning when I did that I went out to put a bill or letter in the mailbox and in the gutter by the curb, I found a key! I took the key and tried it in my front door :-) and it fit but didn't turn. So, I used the key as my "symbol" and looked for "what does the key fit?" situation all day. Toward the end of the end I reviewed my day and found what I think my key fit, what "new" learning/understanding I'd had that day that I might not have noticed had I not been looking as a result of the key finding.

I took a Communications/Speech course in college a few years ago and the course was on "Listening" and was very interesting. Anyway, we had to journal experiences with the 3-4 different kinds of listening, this is what I wrote for "discriminative" listening:

Too, there's often many phones ringing and more people milling about, adding to the din, for this is the nerve center of the company, the front office. On good days, spontaneous singing may break out.

For a nonfiction writing class assignment, I was instructed to, "Think about a place that fascinates or repulses you. Go there and do this: watch, listen, smell, taste, and touch. Not the people, though, unless you are invited to do so, please." I chose to write about my immediate workplace.

While writing the piece, I suddenly realized about the singing because it happened "again" – a coworker stuttered, repeating two words that happened to be part of a song; I sang the verse and the other women in the office joined in. Another coworker reminded me of the previous week when I’d made a rap song out of her yelling at her computer. I repeated a variation of her words with a staccato beat singing, "Give it to me, dammit, dammit, give it to me! Give it to me, dammit, dammit, give it to me!" in a higher-than-normal, mocking voice making everyone laugh. Now instead of feeling frustrated, we sing our new little song and tension gives way to smiles.

Later that evening (Tuesday, April 8, 2003) I decided to do some discriminative listening by listening at work to see if I could detect as many occasions as I could when spontaneous singing should break out and discuss those occasions and their effects here.

Wednesday I heard three occasions for singing. The first was when Jenny, a 30-year old coworker, was discussing the Iraquis and how they were celebrating the Americans’ victories and how she'd be afraid to celebrate. I sang, "Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music. . ." softly but realized I wasn't sure who had recorded the song originally. I asked Debbie, who's 44 who had sung the song and she thought it was the "Guess Who" or "Three Dog Night." We had a nice, comfortable/comforting discussion with her warning me that "it’s the 'Guess Who,' not just the 'Who'," and my rather distainful reply (since I am eight years older than she!) that "I know that." Part of Debbie's and my bond is our closeness in age and I feel this experience illustrates/strengthened that bond.

I remembered Debbie's sister had come over to Debbie's house for dinner the night before. Being a Tuesday night I asked why in the middle of the week? Debbie replied her sister had put highlights in her, Debbie's, hair. We all then turned to Debbie to discuss her highlights and Debbie finished a comment about knowing what color/shade will "happen" with the statement, "You never know." That made me think of the song refrain, "You'll never know how much I love you/You'll never know how much I care. . ."

Later that day, when Debbie opened office supplies and the supplier included a complimentary/thank you bag of Snickers the other three women in the room (Debbie, Jenny and Melissa) discussed candy bars for awhile, Snickers versus 3 Musketeers. Suddenly I heard Debbie sing, "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best, choc-let" and she turned to me and asked, "Do you remember the dog puppet?" referring to the 1950's/60's Nestles' television commercial.

Thursday, Melissa was cleaning out a storage room and found a very large, decorated metal tin that had held pretzels, a Christmas "gift" from the same office supplies supplier. Often they're much prized for taking home and filling with dog food, bird seed or anything else that needs storing like that. Melissa called out, "Who wants the tin?" I replied, "Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, that he didn't already have/Cause never was the reason for believing, in the tropic of Sir Galahad. . ." It was Melissa's last day; she's the owner's daughter and use to work with us but was recently married and has moved away from the area. Her husband is a naval aviator and was away on training for three weeks so she came to stay with her family and work with us a couple weeks.

I was very surprised to hear so many opportunities that reminded me and others of songs. Usually we may only be triggered two or three times a month, not in a single day. This experience made me realize the power of choosing to practice discriminatory listening. I began to wonder what use I could make of this experience. Humor, and in this case, song, is a positive experience and I think looking for song made my whole work day feel lighter and more positive. In addition, I chose to listen for a particular event but I think listening "for" also made me listen "better" overall. I'm sure I will be experimenting with this in the future, changing what I listen for and seeing how that changes my listening experience.

I was also interested looking at when an event reminds one of a song. When my good friend Debbie was angry and upset, stressed by her computer not performing when she needed it to such that she cursed it; I interjected humor by way of making up a rap song to "lighten" the mood. I wonder if my unconscious might find song at places where I or others need song.