Off with her head

This is likely going to be a long post, so you might want to grab a chair and sit down for a bit....

The past few days I've had some interesting coincidences happen that I'm exploring deeper. Saturday night when I was on my date night, I asked my husband if he had ever read any of Lewis Carroll's work. The story goes that Alice in Wonderland (and subsequent stories about Alice) are not his only publications. Back in the day, the Queen of England had read AIW and wanted to read all writings by Lewis Carroll, well, she was surprised by the fact that many of his manuscripts were not fictional, but mathematics books. My husband has an affinity for numbers, math and specifically statistics and he was describing a book he is reading which deconstructs math theorems (queue eyes glazing over). That is why I brought up the topic of Lewis Caroll's writings.

So, fast forward 20 minutes and we are at our next drinking establishment when, what should the cover of the menus be, but a pencil drawing of the famous tea party from AIW. The bartender said, that's synchronicity, my husband said, no that's serendipity...whatever the correct term is, it was a bit spooky and cool at the same time. Fast forward again to the Sunday morning news and they announce that Ashlee Simpson got married on Saturday to the theme of...drum roll....Alice in Wonderland. Ashlee Simpson's wedding has no real meaning for me, but the fact that AIW was presented to me yet a 3rd time in less than 24 hours registered as significant. So, I let it sit and sit, until Monday morning on a 'life-coach call', I brought up my recent AIW coincidences and the coach said, that perhaps there is something in the actual story that might resonate as meaningful in my life. This is where the Law of Attraction and little more "out there" stuff comes in that I'm open to (my brother, however, is quite skeptical). So...I am now on the quest to find the meaning. I started my search for meaning by looking up what metaphors the book has in it to see if they parallel my life...while they were interesting, they weren't resonating, but what did resonate are two quotes from the book....

Quote One:
`Who are YOU?' said the Caterpillar.This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, `I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'

Quote Two:
`I quite agree with you,' said the Duchess; `and the moral of that is--Be what you would seem to be--or if you'd like it put more simply--Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'
`I think I should understand that better,' Alice said very politely, `if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it.'

Those quotes, while somewhat (or completely) confusing, actually speak to me. The first could represent the transition(s) one makes in life - daughter, student, employee, wife, mother, stay-at-home mom of school-aged children (insert ME), empty nester (and the list goes on). Each stage can leave us a bit disoriented and unsure of where we fit in. The other is (I think) about being true to yourself and others will then see who you truly are. If that is not the real meaning of that statement...someone chime in and help translate.

So, now I'm off to Netflix.com to rent the DVD to watch (with my children of course) and see if there are other poignant metaphors that stick out for me....any other insights are welcomed. In the meantime, I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date....hmmm maybe that is all that it is about?