In my opinion, there is a things happen in the way that they do for, basically, one of two reasons:
The FIRST possible reason is causal reaction.
Either you have done something / said something or didn't do something /didn't say something...and this has led you to this present situation or caused this present circumstance to occur. By this, I mean you made a choice at some early point in time, and the present occurrence is a result of that decision (or lack of decision). Thus, this seemingly coincidental occurrence is a consequential event brought about through your own influence in the world. Karma, as witches tend to perceive it, says things happen in the NOW, not in the HEREAFTER, and we are responsible for the NOW and our movements in it that ripple onward.
The SECOND possible reason is that an outside influence is purposefully acting upon you.
Other persons or outside forces --which may be other living, corporeal beings in your environment OR may be at least beings of spirit capable of interacting with this plane of existence in some fashion like Divine Beings, the Mighty Dead, or other non-corporeal but active creatures-- they may elect to bring to some idea or life-lesson to your attention by "pinging" your perceptions about it. Someone else's decisions are impacting your reality, causally or purposefully. They, or at least their influence, is confronting you and challenging you to both notice that impact in your life and now make a conscious choice about how you will acknowledge and react to what they have shown you or caused to be acted upon you.
The important thing to remember in either circumstance --again, this is in my opinion-- is that YOU get to CHOOSE how you will acknowledge and accept and react to things.
You get to process the situation, the content, and weigh it against your prior life experiences, calling to mind your emotional reactions to things, how you may or may not have reacted in prior circumstances, or if this is a wholly new experience for you, to judge it against anything remotely similar you've been exposed to and then choose what you feel is an appropriate reactive response.
What is unique to the witches' viewpoint here, is that we tend to be very attentive to the fact that we are in control of both our response AND how we internalize our immediate reactions to stimuli of circumstance. In so doing, we get that heartbeat-wide space, that moment of captured breath, wherein we can sit with the emotion for just a bit and then decide if our usual gut-reaction or knee-jerk default response is appropriate and of due force given the situation.
We are aware, so very aware, that whatever feedback we give....that will bear continuing change outward, sent rippling and at some point, returning to us in a way we must be responsible for and accountable for. We must be prepared to deal with what we send forth. We must be accepting of what happens, since we are the mindful architects of our reality, we witches, we benders and shapers of our world.
This is often an uncomfortable role. And yeah, everyone has "moments of humanness" when we would so much rather dive into the "ignorance is bliss" mode. But when we've set foot on this path of the Craft....from the moment we'd declared to the Gods and the Mighty Ones that:
Yes, yes, yes! we do really want to suffer to learn,
and we really do want to have the power
to move consciousness with our will, yes we do!
You cannot un-know your fate, your burden of being responsible than the next guy. You've accepted that yoke and now you must pull that around with you.
It isn't all bad though.
You do get to know more about the fact that you, YOU!, are the "man behind the curtain" in a lot of ways concerning your own destiny. You aren't merely some pawn who is forced to mete out your life in a sort of rat-in-an-endless-maze kind of way. There is enjoyment in accomplishment to be had. There is personal recognition for growth and all those lovely epiphany moments that occur.
Like when you meet a friend for the first time and things seemingly just "click" between you naturally.
Or when you have a sense of deja vu about a locale and just seemingly know which turns to make to bring you to a destination that has something which feeds your spirit.
Or when you come across something remote and beautiful and meaningful, seemingly hidden in plain sight, just waiting for you to find and experience it.
There are no coincidences.
Wake up. Pay attention.
The universe and all the creatures in it...they are speaking to you in symbolic language every day.
See. Touch. Taste. Smell. Listen. Feel.
Breathe with the whole of your being and take it all in.
Then, go do something miraculous with it.
