I found this heart today after a run with my dog at Seneca Lake State Park in Geneva, NY. It was an unseasonably gorgeous day here in the Finger Lakes, so we spent some time walking around the lakefront after our run (usually we just hop right in the car and head home), and that’s when I saw the heart hanging on a bush by the water. I was slightly struck by the coincidence of finding the heart the day after I was given a heart-related gift – but hearts are a common symbol, and so I didn’t think too much of it at the moment, beyond it giving me a little smile and mood boost. But when I got home and checked out the IFAQH website, my mind was blown when I read the story of The Three Sisters. The heart-related gift that I received yesterday was a bracelet from my oldest sister containing three intertwined hearts – one representing her, myself, and our middle sister – she had bought one for The Three Sisters. My oldest sister recently received a kind of scary diagnosis, and during the past several weeks the three of us have been in constant contact in a way that we have never been in our adult lives. We were having lunch together yesterday when my oldest sister gave us the bracelets, after which I told them of how THAT was a crazy coincidence because just the night before I had been sketching out a potential tattoo of four intertwined hearts (we have a little brother) that looked almost exactly like the bracelet (plus one more heart). My sister called these coincidences synchronicity – the simultaneous occurrence of events which are meaningfully related but have no discernible causal connection. Whatever we call it, I am grateful to have found this heart and to be able to give it a home. I will try to share the love.
