What's in a name?

My name that is. Linda carol. My mom's sister is Linda, my dad's sister is Carol. I was the first born grandchild on both sides, and was named Linda Carol. According to Mom I wasn't actually named after my aunts, but that they just liked the names. Regardless, I like the idea of being named after my aunts. I've always thought it was silly to have a middle name that never really gets used, so when I started my little bead business I decided I wanted to embrace and use both my names.

Last week at work a tech from another lab, was interested in my jewelry. She asked me if I was familiar with Etsy, and I told her I had an shop and gave her my Etsy ID. Later that day she stopped my office laughing and said, "Guess what my name is?" Well, it turns out she's another Linda Carol. What a small world.

Fast forward to today. I checked my email tonight, and find a messsage titled "I am Linda Carol too!!!" I didn't recognize the address, but with a title like that I had to open the email to see what it was about.

The message:

Hi, this is not a spam, I am just very pleased to have found another namesake who is also creatively gifted. I found you in an odd way, but I am so happy because the other 2 Linda Carol people that I found were artists too! I hope you get this, I am on facebook and I my birthday is 12/11, what's yours?

What a fun email to receive. Another Linda Carol and a fellow Sagitarian to boot. I definitely will respond.

Even more interesting to me, this Linda Carol is a spiritual healer type person (my words not hers) who practices various types of therapies. For some odd reason (is there a reason?) during this last year I keep encountering people who are following spiritual, metaphysical paths. I became acquainted, long distance, with a Reiki master, and a few of my friends started studying shamanism. I've become familiar with terms like "energy work" and chakras. Being the scientific type, I'm never really sure what I think of these metaphysical, spiritual things, but I know I'm fascinated by coincidence, and find it very interesting that yet another spiritual person has popped into my life. I wonder if this is a hint, that perhaps I should be opening my mind to these new and different ways of looking at things.