I once spent a drizzly Sunday afternoon playing Scrabble with my mother-in-law. She was having a hard time recovering from her stroke and Scrabble was her favorite game—before the stroke no one could beat her. I made a double batch of cookies and stuffed them full of oatmeal, chocolate chips, sun dried cherries and coconut. As she struggled over and over spelling words she once found effortless, we managed to eat the entire batch of cookies, just the two of us.

Did the cookies help cure my mother in-laws stroke? I believe, for that one day, they did. She definitely played Scrabble better than she would have without them. Her recovery has been a long and painful process and those cookies eased the pain a bit that afternoon.

The word ‘placebo’ is defined as “a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect.” This could take many forms. Vitamins. crystals and stones, home alarm systems—these all are alternately proven and disproven to be healthful and real. But as we take our vitamins every morning, don’t we recite (at least in our minds)

“ . . . glucosamine for joint health, Co-q-10 for mental clarity and improved heart health . . . “? Yes we now have scientific proof of the benefits of vitamins, but the most important benefit may be that we believe in them and the litany we recite to ourselves as we swallow them. How many of us collect stones and crystals, thinking “ . . . citrine brings wealth, black tourmaline protects from negative energies . . .”

When my son was very young I placed a kiss on the back of his hand after I put on my lipstick. Looking at it seemed to help calm him if his school day got difficult. And how many times have we made our children’s ‘ouchies’ feel better just by kissing them?

Studies show those of us who get a kiss in the morning go off to have a better day at work than those who don’t. Children almost always cling to a blanket or stuffed animal for comfort. And it works—ask any parent. I don’t know about you but I’d rather believe something I’m doing is making me well. It feels good to believe we’re getting better, and feeling good helps us get better.

On the subject of placebos, the website ‘I f**king love science’ wrote “If you’re not completely blown away by the power of placebo, then you don’t know enough about it. It’s the closest I’ve ever seen to actual magic.” Placebos work even if the person taking them knows they’re placebos, found one Harvard study. It’s a physics principle—the observer affects the experiment.

We use placebos all the time in our lives. Mostly we are unconscious about it. But . . . what if we began doing it consciously? What if we surround ourselves with things that feel like healing to us. It may feel silly at first, if you’re one of those people who need linear or physical proof, but no one needs to know about this but you. Do your own quiet, personal experiments. Believe in something, believe that something wonderful is about to happen. Do it every day. What do you have to lose?

What if it works?

~ always believe something magical is about to happen

pink-chronicity Pyn·chro·nic·i·tyˌpiNGkrəˈnisədē/noun The happy certainty that something is just meant to be.

We are all Stardust “The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded…the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron… were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust.” ~ Lawrence Krauss

When we find ourselves in the presence of synchronicity, we sit in wonder and awe as if the experience is unique, or unusual, or special. We share anecdotes about coincidences, “I picked up the phone to call my sister and she was in the process of calling me.” Or, “I don’t know why but I had a feeling I should call home so I did and sure enough, an old friend stopped by.” Or, you open a card from your husband at Christmas and it’s the same card you gave him.

I like to call that sort of thing “pinkchronicity”, and I smile knowingly when it happens, which is often. And when we read our horoscope in a magazine and it’s right on, we act surprised and sometimes shocked. But what if that sort of thing isn’t unique, or special, or even unusual? As Lawrence Krauss reminds us, “Every event that happens has small probability…but it happens…if it’s weird, if you dream one million nights and it’s nonsense but one night you dream that your friend is gonna break his leg and the next day he breaks his arm… So the real thing that physics tell us about the universe is that it’s big, and rare events happen all the time — including life — and that doesn’t mean it’s special.”

It’s a big universe out there and we are all, you, me, the stars, we are all made of the same stuff. We are all connected. We all vibrate with the energy, rhythm and movement of the big, swirling explosion that is our universe in a most intimate way. It shouldn’t surprise us at all that this most accurate and perfect clock can mark not only the time on our world, but also moments, events, and yes, thoughts and moods. It happens all the time.