Serendipity

Serendipity: the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Also, the fact or instance of making such a discovery.

So many of the things I love most intensely have been blown into my life upon a gust of serendipity. Some of the things that have touched the very core of my being and changed me in some small way- but utterly- have been completely by chance. By accident. Now that I sit blowing on my tea and waiting for it to cool, I cannot help but think perhaps, perhaps if I had not discovered these things in this way or that way, the way that I did- perhaps I would never have discovered them at all. And who would I be now, if that were the case?

Well happily, most happily, I have discovered them and I do not have to think about who or what or where I would be without them. Perhaps the whole of life is nothing but a whirl of Serendipity with us caught in the centre of our own whirl of it? But here are some happy and unexpected discoveries that I have made by accident.

The Enchanted April a sweet lady at work and I were talking about how many days were left until pay day. She mentioned that she keeps a little notebook to track where her pennies go, and when she cannot make it balance, she makes a note of the erroneous figure to an unknown soldier ‘just like in Enchanted April’. First I watched the film, and then I read the book. And I fell very much in love. So much of what was in the book was also in me- but in reading it, I recognised it for the first time.

Carl I was going to a camping weekend for a friend’s birthday. I had a rather bad cough and was going to stay at home, but on a whim I went. I had been told that he wouldn’t be there (an unfortunate romantic disappointment between he and I at the tender age of 14 had put me off him FOREVER). He was there. I was there. And we have been together ever since.

Brocante Home what a scrumptious website! What a lovely Alison who creates it! Vintage Housekeeping, puttery treats, little rituals, aprons, tiny candles, routines, lavender water- changed our home life so much. Made me write! Made me blog! I scrub seasonally! All I was trying to do, when I found this haven on the internet, was to find a website that would tell me how to make my own Christmas Crackers…

Mrs MiniverBrocante Home Alison mentioned this book recently. I got it from the library shelf the same day, and had devoured it by the next. Again, it is like a part of me I had not met had somehow been captured by someone else and scattered across the pages for me to meet. Of course I do not think I am Mrs Miniver- just that the way she thinks, her observations….seem very familiar to me!

Oh there are many more, but how boring for you to read! I just feel thankful for these things. Perhaps the American Thanksgiving Tradition has crept into my consciousness? Anyway, for all of these- and blogs through which I have met some lovely, lovely friends – I am thankful!