Serendipity

Sometimes in life, we stumble upon something we never set out to find...and yet, it finds us.

This morning, I had packed quiche for my breakfast into an Ikea tupperware. The plastic storage had some unfamiliar symbols on the bottom, so I wasn't sure if I could pop it into the micrwave for re-heating.

I tried googling "ikea microwave oven safe symbol" and that got me to a blog kept by an American wife/mom/grandma who, from the looks of it, loves journaling, scrapbooking, quilting and making crafts. She posted an Emily Dickinson poem which I just melted for. Read it and just relish the words on the tongue. This makes me wish I had studied literature in college.

I love the first and last line of the poem.

I Dwell in Possibility
by Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise.

And now, some words on the concept of serendipity (also taken off her blog):

"Serendipity visits all of our lives at some point. You begin by going left, take a sudden right and find yourself someplace unexpected. Sure, some people know almost from childhood the path that they will take and map it out. Most of us, however, are a little softer in the life plan department. You think: This is the thing I will do, then encounter something unexpected and find yourself in a new place altogether."

Linda Richards

"Serendipity can be developed, as an attitude of the mind and as a quality of the spirit. It can energize and excite our lives and give us balance between structure and spontaneity, between flat, fixed firmness and free, fun flexibility. It can allow us to “get there” and to “enjoy the journey” at the same time. It can tap us into a higher, clearer reality andinject joy into what is no longer the routine.

On a more serious note, serendipity of the spirit can be an attitude whereby our lives become divinely guided rather than self structured. Serendipity of the spirit can become the connecting bridge betweenour goals and God’s will."

Richard Eyre

By the way, the movie of the same name, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, was and still is one of my favourite romantic date movies!

So folks, sometimes in life, we stumble upon something we never set out to find...and yet, it finds us. While what we've been searching for all our lives, remains elusive.

I still have no clue what that darn Ikea symbol means!