Syzygy

You’ll find my attempt at a post with the aforementioned title, as suggested by Keenan via our post title trade! Read more about the initiative, or contact me if you’d also like to trade!

When I first encountered this word...I didn’t know how to pronounce it, let alone its meaning!

But I soon discovered it’s SIZ-ih-jee, and it describes the straight-line alignment of celestial bodies. Three or more cosmic entities lining up in harmony, if only for a moment.

There’s something beautiful about that. The universe conspiring to create temporary order from its usual chaos.

In two words, serendipitous alignment.

Are you ever going about your usual existence then something happens? When everything just works? What if people experience syzygy too?

That happened just yesterday. I’ve been thinking about someone I used to know and hadn’t seen for years. Then what happens? They appear in my inbox.

Nothing extraordinary, sure. But in that moment, I felt aligned.

And when I think about it, most of these moments involve other people. The penpal whose letter arrived when I needed it most. The friend whose enthusiasm for a band matched mine. The back-and-forth emails that flow so easily, the boundary between self and other seems to dissolve.

I wonder if writing is an attempt to manufacture these alignments. To arrange words and ideas until they click into place, forming their own temporary constellation of meaning.

Because these moments are fleeting. The light shifts, the feeling fades, and we return to our usual orbit of uncertainty. But maybe that’s what makes them precious. If everything were always in perfect alignment, we’d take it for granted.

Maybe we don’t need permanent alignment. Maybe the beauty lies in the brevity.

The planets will drift apart again. The words will scatter. But for a moment...everything was where it needed to be.

That’s syzygy. And that’s enough.

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