Synchronicity, Signs, and the Hidden Threads of Reality

Are all the answers waiting in plain sight?

Apr 11, 2025

When I was living in New York, one of my favorite pastimes was going to the East or West Village, finding a good iced tea and just walking around, kind of aimlessly, people watching, enjoying the street art and architecture. No matter how many times I walked down those same streets, there was always something new to find and there was something about it that was comforting and felt like home. Usually I’d end up at Tompkins or the pier depending which direction I headed.

One day in particular, I was living in Harlem at the time, so I took the 2 train down to Christopher St and walked through Washington Square over to the East Village. While I was on my way down, I all of the sudden got this random part of a song stuck in my head, but I could not figure out what it was for the life of me. I knew it had to be one that came up regularly on one of my Spotify personalized playlists, so I spent the train ride down trying to sift through song after song until something sounded right. When I reached Christopher St, I still hadn’t had any luck, so I decided to leave it for the time being and went off on my walk.

Like I mentioned before, I always like taking in the street art and was normally on the lookout for my favorite artists’ work. One that I always stopped for was Phoebe, she was a girl with a big, round, cartoon head stuck on different photos of models/outfits and there was usually some little quote alongside her. Whenever I saw a new one, I’d usually stop and take a photo. On this day, I was walking down West 4th when I saw her. It was one I must have seen before because I kept walking past, but when I made it to the upcoming intersection, something made me turn back to go take a picture. It was one that said “Have a beautiful day!” and I think I was feeling like I needed to embrace that.

When I got back over to her, I realized the wall right next to the one she was on was also covered in a bunch of other art. One that caught my eye was an illustration of a guy playing electric guitar with a demon hanging on his back. I had no idea what it was for, but the style was interesting and it looked cool, so I took a photo of that one too, then headed back to Christopher St to get back on the train uptown.

Once I was back on the train, my search for this elusive song resumed, diving back into another Spotify playlist. This time, success! It was some song by Queens of the Stone Age. They weren’t a band I really listened to that often, but this one song kept showing up in my algorithm without me ever really looking at who/what it was. It was satisfying to feel like I had cracked the case, but once I found it, that was that, my job was done, and I didn’t really think much more of it from there.

I got back home, face-timed with a friend for a while, cooked dinner, it wasn’t until hours later that I remembered the photo I took of the demon/guitarist illustration and that I’d meant to try to find out who the artist was. When I looked back at the photo, I realized there was a tiny quote written on the guitar that I hadn’t noticed originally. It said “all my confusion is waving goodbye”. I didn’t know what that was from or how it was relevant, but it was the only writing on the image, so I tried googling it to see if it led anywhere.

Turns out, that quote is a lyric that is etched on Josh Homme’s guitar, who is the lead singer of none other than, you guessed it, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE. And this illustration was part of the artwork for their upcoming album that was being released two days later.

What are the odds of that? I’m searching all day for some random song from a band I’m not that familiar with and out of nowhere, this artwork gets put right in front of me on the same day.

I recently watched The Matrix for the first time (I’m obsessed now) and it really got me thinking about reality and the universe. Maybe all the answers are actually right in front of us already, we just need to know to look for the connections. When Trinity tells Neo to follow the white rabbit, he doesn’t know what that means, but when a girl shows up at his door with a rabbit tattoo, he recognizes this is his moment. He’s present enough to recognize and make the connection that this is the sign he’s supposed to be waiting for.

When these synchronicities or coincidences happen, it makes me question if the universe is laying out these easter eggs more readily than we realize, and we just need to be tuned in properly to notice them. It’s laying out the path to the things we want in a form that it knows we’ll pay attention to, something that will trigger the right associations to lead us in the right direction. I think it’s easy to write these experiences off as pure happenstance, but what if there’s actually more to it and we just need to remain open to the unexplainable. When we have a strong pull towards or interest in something and it keeps showing up repeatedly, take notice, listen, maybe it’s the universe trying to show you something in a way it knows you’ll be able to receive.

Have you ever had a moment like this—where something seemingly random turned out to be a sign?

Synchronicity, Signs, and the Hidden Threads of Reality

Are all the answers waiting in plain sight?

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