Meaningful Coincidence and Life's Push

I am long overdue for a new post. Time has flown by and we are into the month of May! That means that there is less than 2 months until we leave for Moscow! This seems like an eternity but getting a time in June seemed like a dream only 2 months ago.

The reason that this post has taken so long is while trying to tell a bit about the events that led us to the treatment in Moscow – I have been struggling to find a way to make it meaningful. The original draft sounded like it was written by a third grader “First my mom…then my friend…then an acquaintance…” Boring...But what do I want to say really?

Then all of these small coincidences start appearing. I am reading a Swedish newspaper (DN) and it seems that every article is directly related to something that is going on in my life. I immediately start thinking about my good old friend Joris and synchronicity - or 'meaningful coincidences'. OK, that is interesting, but how to connect synchronicity to my journey to Moscow? Stephen King to the rescue.

Stephen King, in 11/22/63 writes about the way life pushes us in certain directions - in otherwords the future is obdurate. That was it! Synchronicity and life’s tendency to be obdurate ties the story together. So here we go, prepare yourself for these fantastic meaningful events that have pushed us to Moscow!

So how do ‘meaningful coincidences’ tie in with life’s tendency to be obdurate? Well through meaningful coincidences – happenings occur and ‘push’ us to some future point. Yes I am aware that it may be so that we look too closely at coincidences and overinterpret them, but just stay along for the ride anyway and judge for yourself!

1993, my new friend Joris V from Ontario, introduces me to two valuable concepts: The concepts of synchronicity and hitchhiking. He loans me a book by CJ Jung that I annihilate and I directly start becoming aware of chance happenings. What hitchhiking teaches you is that things always work out. When you are convinced that you will never get a ride, some one always turns up to help you. With this idea firmly engrained I, with out much thought, decide to hitchhike from Marseille to Copenhagen (1818 km) and celebrate Midsummers in Sweden. Chance happenings, coincidences and life’s obdurate nature gets me there in 33 hours. Everything works out perfectly and I arrive in Copenhagen and take the train to Sweden for my first Scandanavian experience.

So let’s skip forward in time with the knowledge that we will come back to hitchiking and Sweden a little later.

Christmas 2015, my balance and walking ability go into a fast decline. I start struggling on the stairs and becoming more dependent on my cane, which I hate since it is perhaps the most uncool cane possible. If there was a show called “Pimp My Cane” I would be the star.

My parents, here for Christmas, become concerned. I want to emphasize that being trapped in a small house with parents for 3 weeks can exasperate all kinds of symptoms, but is generally not connected to worsening MS-symptoms. There are not clinical studies anyway. Anyway, my worried mother looking for answers finds stem cell treatments being done on sufferers of PPMS in Moscow. We are of course skeptical and the price seems ridiculous. We reason that if this treatment works why isn’t it used by everyone else in the world? Well there are of course desperate people with unlimited finances making last attempts at finding a miracle cure - we reason. Just forget it.

Coincidence and obduracy. Within a day I receive a call from an English friend, John, who has just seen a documentary about HTSC in Moscow. We sit down to watch and one of the men in the documentary shares a similar story to mine. After the treatment he begins to show vast improvements! It is perhaps not just desperate people with unlimited finances who do this; maybe it really works? We immediately move forward with our research.

Discouragement once again – higher costs than we thought, 2 year waiting lists, red tape with visas, doctors at home not willing to provide follow-up treatment etc... We give up again. But again - coincidence and obduracy. This time it is a call from Mahmoud who has moved to Sweden fleeing the war in Syria. We have known him only a short time but even after everything he has been through, he shows us such compassion by taking the time to inform us about a treatment he has read about in Moscow - he thinks it could help me. He even offers to go to Russia with us as a translator (he speaks Russian)! What are the chances?

Despite the stress over future debts and lack of finances everything is pushing us towards Moscow. We send an application but to our dismay are informed that 2016 and 2017 are full. We reserve a place for 2018. Of course the more your nerve system degenerates the more difficult it is to regain functions. Depressing.

To do something fun and put Moscow aside, my son and I travel to Lund to visit some old friends. One sunny day while sitting at a cafe with Ulrika Z, the adventurous backpacker that I met in Israel in 1993, the phone rings. It is Annica - half giddy half crying. She explains that earlier in the day she had felt so down over the hopelessness of our situation that she had sat down on the rug and asked the universe (or God – you choose) to help. Within two hours we had gotten an email saying that we were accepted for treatment on the 14th of June! Ulrika and I both shed tears of joy!

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Oh almost forgot, so why is this a meaningful coincidence that I am sitting across from Ulrika? Well 23 years ago near the Lebanese border, I am standing desperately on the side of a quiet road in the darkness praying for help, when Ulryka out of nowhere stops to give me a lift – you guessed it – I had been hitchhiking. And by the way, it was she that I COINCIDENTLY run into in a youth hostel outside of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem months later where she introduces me to my wife, Annica. Of course as soon as I meet Annica I realize that there is something special between us but have to say farewell and do not expect to meet again. 10 days later in Dahab, Egypt, I coincidentally end up at the same bungalow colony as Ulryka and Annica - that's when we know that this is meant to be.

It is amazing that 23 years later I am sitting across from my hitchhiking friend who introduced me to my wife who brought me back to live in Sweden. And then I get the news that I will be getting the treatment that will give me my life back. Meaningful coincidence. Life’s obdurate nature. All pushing on us.