I’m sure a lot of you have experienced deja vu’s over the years; those moments or experiences that seem very familiar, like you’ve almost lived them once before. Maybe you’ve dreamt about that particular occurance, or maybe it’s from a previous birth.

I have always experienced deja vu’s as mostly things Im pretty sure I’ve dreamt about, since I can almost always think back to the dream and recollect my subconcious wanderings. Some times, it’s a vague recollection of my meandering journey through the back-alleys of sleep; sometimes, it is a pretty vivid flashback of the exact unfolding of the dream…tonight was such a night.

Xu’s been telling me about these great little holiday shops in the City. Last night he took me to Union Square, and this evening, I felt like checking out Grand Central. I’ve been there only once, in passing, and remembered it to be a beautiful place that I wanted to come back to. So I left work a bit early (5:30, which is early considering my past-7 days lately), and went down there. It’s been a while since I’ve actually had the evenings to myself; it usually been a lot of together-friends things with Ms. Art, who was at a movie with friends today. That left me with a whole evening of browsing the whimsical shops at my own pace, taking in the incredible atmosphere of a maddening mass of cold men and women rushing to and from places amidst all the cheerful and glowing holiday cheer.

I window-shopped for a bit, made a mental note of the possible gifts I could get people, and was about to head back to the subways when I happened to look at the passageways leading to the regular trains. That’s when the feeling of deja vu overtook me like an evening breeze on the sea coast. I’ve been here before. I’ve run through these passageways before. I’ve searched for someone here before.

I stood there, amidst all the transiting masses, still as a statue, fixated upon that slowly forming memory from the past; of the time spent rushing for a train through those very tunnels, of a time when I had a randevouz with someone special somewhere in that cavernous terminal, of a time when I barely made a train I was supposed to be on. I wanted to soak in as much of that moment as I could; here I was looking at the very place that my dream had unfolded in, like an old map being slowly decoded, or an old picture being slowly untarnished. It was a brilliant moment of introspection, of inner-peace and of the possession of a tiny piece of the personal, supernatural experiences that gives us hope that each of us really is special within the grand schemes that work this crazy world.

As I keep telling everyone within earshot, my life is made up of a mind-boggling number of coincidences and fateful occurances and dramatic events and extraordinary supernatural interventions. I hope to write more about all the serendipitous things that have been happening to me, especially lately, but suffice to say that tonight was another one of those nights that I felt close to whatever divine forces there are around us; just being able to revisit one of my dreams made me feel strangely calm and satisfied. It also left a bit of the holiday-magic upon my night, turning what would have been another routine exploration of New York into quite a night!

Wow, deja vu again. Im not kidding. Minor one this time. Go ahead, call me crazy!

The whole night went by like one of those long movie montages accompanied by one of those sweet, soft-rock introspection/angst/hope-filled soundtracks. Like ‘The only living boy in New York’ track I’m listening to right now. Then, ofcourse, right on queue, as I passed by one of the multitude of subterranean musicians who make their living playing for the commuters, I thought I heard a song I recognized. Eric Clapton-Tears in Heaven. Played with a slightly faster beat with a lot more thump. Perfect ending to a pleasantly satisfying evening. New York sure does provide the soundtrack to my life now!