Tag Archives: chance

Serendipitous happenings

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serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē|
~ noun: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I love life and all it’s funny little ways. And I especially love serendipity.

So, I think you will remember my friend Alison who kindly wrote a guest post while I was under the weather when my uninvited guest Ross River was staying with me.

I met Alison online through a friend, who I also met online. Ah yes, those things we tell our teenagers about meeting people online – not a terribly good example are we?

When our son needed a place to stay in Sydney back in June, guess who put their hand up? Alison. After only ‘knowing’ me online for a couple of months, she happily welcomed our boy into their home and family for three weeks, something for which we will be forever grateful (and that’s not just rhetoric).

So after hearing time and time again from our boy about how well we would all get on with each other, when Alison said they were coming to Brisbane, we promptly invited them for a meal.

And you know what? Our son was right. They were every bit as lovely as he said, maybe even more so. It was truly like old friends getting together rather than strangers who didn’t even know what each other looked like meeting for the first time. We ate, drank, talked over the top of each other, finished each other’s sentences, played games, made fun of each other, Took It Too Far, sweetheart and generally had a ball.

And then, I got a double shot of Alison when we went for coffee today. And boy, am I glad we did. We were able to talk ‘shop’ and discuss all manner of writerly things that only other crazy writers understand (writers online girls, you so should have been there too!).

As I was feeling stagnant and overwhelmed by my quest for a first novel completion, Alison gladly bounced around ideas with me about how to get back on track, if indeed, that was what I wanted. I went there ready to bin, or at the very least, delegate to the metaphorical bottom drawer, my whole manuscript but after talking it over I knew that wasn’t actually what I wanted to happen.

I actually want to write the damn story. Alison and I (I include myself as I physically was there but really, she was coming up with all the great ideas) then nutted out a suitable ‘plan’.

And now I’m excited about my book again.

But more importantly, meeting Alison (and the wonderful family) has cemented the friendship that we kinda already knew was there but weren’t sure. Well, now we’re sure.

I love how God gives us just what we need, at just the right time – serendipity!

And just to complete the ‘silliness’ of meeting online, like the ‘youngsters’ do, we even managed to take a ‘selfie’. (It only took us eight goes to get both of us in the shot and looking halfway decent – pretty impressive, I think.)

Please come back soon, Alison and Co…we miss you already!

 

Survival

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For Christmas, my husband gave me five rose bushes. Since moving from our previous house, where I had rose bushes, I have missed having these beautiful flowers to cut and bring inside or give to others. As you know, it rained a little bit over the Christmas/January break. Roses aren’t too fond of copious amounts of water, so we weren’t surprised when we had a casualty.

It makes me think about how some things/people survive adverse circumstances and some don’t. All the rose bushes had the same amount of rain during that time, all were healthy and all were treated to the same planting technique. Yet, they didn’t all respond the same way.

A bit like us. We can go through the same thing as others, yet it can take a bigger toll on us and vice versa. For some of us, when we go through tough times, a little bit of us dies; we harden our hearts, make resolves that may or may not be healthy, we shut a little part of us away to avoid future pain. All natural, normal responses to trying circumstances.

And sometimes the losses are more tangible than that. Sometimes we lose businesses, relationships, friends. And some of us will shrivel up and die inside, while others will pick themselves up and move forward.

Often, if we allow it, something new will be born to replace what we have lost. And sometimes that new thing is wonderful and glorious. And sometimes, it’s risky. Risky to open up to someone after being hurt; risky to keep going with your dream in the face of criticism; risky to start up a new business when the floods swept the last one away.

Recently, we purchased a replacement rose bush to join the little collection that is now thriving in our garden. Here is the first bloom from Rose Valencia.
Beautiful, isn’t it? We could have just left the space where the first rose bush was, empty. We could have just settled for having one less. But we didn’t, we took a chance that even this late in the season, a new rose would flourish and survive.

Look what we would have missed out on, if we hadn’t taken that chance.