In 1976, when I was 16, my mother and I moved from Florida to San Diego, even though I desperately wanted to move back to Colorado, where I was born and had spent the first 14 years of my life.

I adjusted to life in Southern California, and at age 28, met a young sailor. (I swore that as long as I lived I would never date a sailor -- if you lived in San Diego, you would know why.) A friend introduced us, and our first conversation started with him asking me if I was a California native. I told him that I had grown up in Englewood, Colorado, and was hoping to someday move back.

He looked surprised, and told me that he had grown up in Littleton, Colorado (famous, unfortunately for the Columbine school massacre), and that he had attended Littleton High School. My mother had also attended LHS, and my sailor (and husband-to-be) had had the same typing teacher as my mother. This woman taught my mother in her first year of teaching and my sailor the year she retired.

We continued to talk, and discovered that we both knew a young woman named Jenny. I had known her when she was four or five years old and hadn't seen her in 25 years or more. She had married one of my sailor's best friends from high school, and they had a child together. We marveled at the fact that we had grown up about five miles apart, and only met in San Diego.

We continued to discover our common ground as we walked through the local swap meet. My mother and aunt had played in the Littleton Cemetery, as had my future husband and his brothers, and there were many other similarities.

One day, during a trip to Colorado, we drove through streets we had in common, pointing out landmarks that had played important roles in our childhoods. I introduced him to my sister and brother-in-law, and I met his family and friends. It was a strange trip, with many episodes of déjà vu.

I knew that from the beginning, I felt comfortable with this man; there was none of that awkward small talk -- we could discuss anything, and we did. We shared many values, and he was open to learning about different schools of belief. We think our meeting was kismet. We were married about two years after we met, moved back to Denver, and have been married for almost 18 years.

I see Jenny on occasion, and we remember little things from when we were children. I have never believed in coincidences; I believe that my husband and I have important soul-work to do together in this life.