starts with a word…

Serendipity:

ˌserənˈdipədē/

noun

1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

etymology.

1754: coined by Horace Walpole, suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of’…

I don’t know how much I believe in serendipity, though I have experienced it quite a bit. Seems a little ephemeral. Like, I don’t know about something that shows up sometimes and then doesn’t show up other times. Feels like when people say ‘serendipity’ they are kind of implying something more than a beautiful confluence of events, or a beautiful run of luck. But they are implying that there is some deeper intelligence behind it. That there is a sign behind it. Some sign that says go this way or that. They aren’t saying, wow, what a cool run of luck.

They are implying something closer to ‘providence.’ Something closer to ‘good on you, you must have been doing something right. Or you must be going in the right direction. Or you must be one of those special people for whom these kinds of things happen. Somehow, underneath it all, chosen for this affirming set of converging events that arrived all for you and precisely to turn out so beautifully.’

I don’t want to pretend I haven’t experienced such events. But I have also experienced events that were decidedly not that. And that, you know, people still somehow want you to characterize, or put into the mold of, a still somehow confirming set of events.

I don’t know how much weight or credence should be given to them, when so much of life is just navigating a series of things happening. And still, somehow, attending to, seeking, or making more opportunities, chances and spaces, for the life we most desire, or most feel we are meant to live… doing the best we can to make that life out of open spaces, or out of the reality of the life that is actually happening.