It is the final scene in Castaway. Chuck Noland, finally back to civilization after being marooned alone on an island for five years, has returned to find his erst fiancé married and with a family.

Chuck is once again cast away, adrift on a sea of possibilities. Where to go next? He delivers a UPS package that indirectly had saved his life, hoping to thank the sender, but he or she is not at home. He is at a standstill then, literally stopped at a barren crossroads, trying to decide what direction to take to proceed into his uncertain future.  North, South, East, West: all seem equally empty.

A woman driving up to make a turn at the rural crossroads slows to see if she might be able to assist the apparently stranded man who stands outside his Jeep with a road map, looking aimless and lost. She explains his options in terms of destination points in all directions, then she leaves. But as her pickup truck steams off down from the direction in which he had made his delivery, Chuck sees a sign: angel wings painted on the back of the truck—the same angel wings that were on the package he had delivered; a symbol that had served to keep him sane and brought him home from his isolation on the island.

The movie ends, but we know where Chuck will go next, in what direction his future lies. He will follow those angel wings and forge a new Life Chapter.

Is this a story about synchronicity, when just the right sign appears in your life at just the right time? Chuck was asking for direction, studying a road map, and that is precisely when he received his Sign. How Mystic-al! And yet, improbable synchronicity like this happens for most of us when we most need it, especially when we remember to ask—and then, to pay attention so to recognize the answer!

How about in your life? Can you think of a time when you asked for a sign and one appeared to help guide you to your next step with some situation or decision? Did you follow that sign then, or did you continue asking and looking, just accepting the sign as partial guidance for a question of bigger proportions?

Some people are able to take quite successful ‘quantum leaps,’ as it were, responding to signs they receive, while others are more circumspect and prefer to proceed in smaller steps. I am—with some significant exceptions in my life—most often one of the latter. Signs are still important to this second kind of seeker, though, as each sign might reveal a significant piece of the puzzle.

“Ask and you shall receive!” is the postulate we are looking at with this post. To assimilate this principle more deeply within your mindful awareness, I invite you to write about a time when you did recognize and when you ACTED upon a clear sign you received, whether the sign came through a dream, a contemplative vision, or outwardly as a “waking dream” or as “golden tongued wisdom” (if it came as a direct answer to a question you were pondering as an unlikely statement from a friend or stranger). What were the results?

Secondly, I invite you to contemplate a question for which you would like to receive a sign in your life Now.  Pose the question in direct, simple terms. Ask to receive a clear sign.

I welcome your insights and stories!