After last week’s unexpected situations, I figured the Trickster would be through with me on Saturday.  Nope.  The Trickster is still at work (or actually, probably at play) in my life.  The focus this week seems to be time, with a little technology thrown in.

The flow of the Tennessee River on a cloudy afternoon  in Chattanooga

The Trickster is an archetype.  He or she breaks the rules or doesn’t follow plans and is often a catalyst for change.  I think the Trickster is helping me see in new ways, helping me shatter my image of time and when things are “supposed” to happen.  The most interesting Trickster manifestation this week has been the disappearance of my watch.  Yesterday morning, my watch alarm woke me up at 6:57 (yeah, sometimes I set alarms at odd times).  I know I had the watch in my hand to turn off the alarm, but somehow after that, the watch disappeared.  Not literally, mind you.  It’s somewhere in my bedroom.  But I can’t find it.  I went about my day yesterday, watchless, and I figured that when the alarm went off this morning, I’d find the watch.  At 6:57, the alarm went off.  I got up and looked for my watch.  I could hear it.  It seemed to be on my dresser.  But I couldn’t find it.  I thought, “Maybe it’s on the floor under my dresser?”  Nope.  The alarm went off for 20 seconds, and I didn’t find the watch.  But there’s the snooze alarm that comes on five minutes later.  So I was ready when it went off.  I could hear it. . . but I couldn’t see the watch.  The alarm seemed muted somehow.  I didn’t find the watch during the snooze alarming, either.  Is the watch in a drawer?  Doesn’t seem to be.  Not on the dresser, not under the dresser, not in the dresser.

Where is it???

My early-arrival view of the Tennessee River

The Trickster played with time in a couple of other situations this week, too.  In one, a friend was an hour late for lunch, and then in another, I was half an hour early for lunch.  Time seems to be taking on a different quality for me.  The Trickster is helping me realize that things can happen on their own time, that I don’t have to try to control that.  That I don’t have control of that.  And honestly, I never did.

I have to laugh.  Yes, my idea of being in control is an illusion.  Just as time is.  It flows.  I don’t control it.  The Trickster is just making sure I acknowledge that.

I started an eight-week sustainable wellness course in Rome, Georgia on Thursday, and the Trickster showed up there, too.  The course is offered by Cancer Navigators (a nonprofit that specializes in integrative medicine) and is facilitated by a radiation oncologist in Rome and a yoga/meditation teacher (via Skype) in Austin, Texas.  The Trickster first played with the Skype connection so that the Texas facilitator couldn’t see us – and then just broke the connection completely so that we finished the first session without any contact with our Texas facilitator.  I feel sure that Trickster energy is going to be a part of this group.  Who knows how it will manifest?  Not me.  But it’s sure to be interesting. . .

I think the Trickster’s message for me now is to pay attention – and not get caught up in timing or expectations.  And to laugh when the Trickster shows up.  Because often the point is that the way I’ve imagined life isn’t expansive enough.  That things are hidden in plain sight.  That all I need to do is look at what’s there when it’s there. That what I expect may not be enough.

And that life has a sense of humor!