Chance. Coincidence. Serendipity. Imagine that. Who would have thought?
Got a just-so-happened story?
If you do, chances are, there is involved a dire circumstance – or two, or three; a consequent anguish of soul of some duration; a twist, or two, in the unfolding plot, or, more likely, just a downward spin of uncontrolled despair as a plane having lost its rudder, or a sailboat without a tiller driven by the storm.
And then, at a moment in time, unbeknownst to you, working behind the scenes, a just-so-happened, jaw-dropping, stars-magically-aligning, smile-to-your-face bringing – and possibly tears of joy too – event, or more likely a series of events and people that once again cause the sun the shine, the plane to level out, the storm to end.
All of which suggests that behind it all, and through it all, the script drawn up to tell your life’s story was never, after all, scrapped to the trash bin; your stage drama had, after all, a necessary – as it turned out – sinister dark side; and, finally, the curtain that you thought had closed as the stage lights dimmed, reopens to a resounding standing ovation calling for an encore, and there they all are, not actors after all but real people, real events necessary to the development of who you are.
Got a just-so-happened story?
Chances are, we all do.
It’s what makes the tapestry of our lives – the warp and woof of the fabric that forms such an intricate pattern – less an amazing wall hanging for public display, although that too, but more a comforter in which we wrap ourselves while smiling in retrospect, the coals of the fire slowly winking out, the stars twinkling more brightly in the night sky.
A description perfectly suited to my thinking before…..
A chance happening, luck, coincidence. Then, at age 50, He came. For the next 8 long disturbing years, He gently but persistently, spoke to me, saying the strangest thing to someone like me. I thought I was going crazy..even crazier than my friends already thought I was anyway!
Like the esteemed storyteller, Paul Harvey, used to say, “and then there is the rest of the story.” Too long to tell here, but suffice it to say, I no longer believe in happenstances and blind luck!
Thanks for a great reminder of my own story.
Thank you Jerri for responding and relating a snippet of your own story to show that, chances are, there is less support for ‘chance’ as it affects our lives as there is for evidence that the way things turned out, in hindsight, make us more aware that we are part of something that more likely was meant to be, that made us what we’ve become.
I’m slowly – because it can’t be read quickly, but rather contemplatively – plodding through Thomas Howard’s “Chance or the Dance?” the premise of which is to show that we have been robbed of the sense that “we are extraordinary creatures whose lives have eternal meaning” and have instead “accepted a view that says we are cosmic accidents whose lives have no meaning at all.”
My life does matter – and yours, all of ours – as we are part of the fabric; we are connected, events are not without meaning; we’re not aimless, nameless shooting stars with vapor trails seen or maybe not.
It’s a game changer to realize each of us, and what we do, matters.
Which means whole communities matter.
Which means we’ve a legacy to leave, a path to pursue, a baton to extend, a mantle to embolden others to ‘miraculous’ endeavors.
We matter. It’s not chance. It’s a dance.
Thanks for that.
When given the choice, always choose to dance, my friend! (Even if you have to pretend that no one is watching.)