"Life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences, but rather a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite sublime plan" - Serendipity 2001 (Film)
The
definition of Serendipity is actually a fortunate accident that leads you to
discover something. The following is a piece about the way many of us live our
day to day lives floating around believing that these so called
"accidents" and occurrences can crack a crucial equation to the
events of our life. Clearly this idea breaks the rules of logic and simple
science and perhaps you'd imagine I'm just living a fantasy fairy tale. The
world is quite divided on this idea and many also think these signs are just
happy coincidences and move along, without paying much regard to them.
Ironically,
one of the most famous examples of such a fortuitous accident was the discovery
of penicillin. Alexander Fleming returned from a holiday to find penicillin
molds had killed bacteria that Fleming had neglected to disinfect. There are
plenty of other such cases where one can blame an accident or sign which was
there for someone to either ignore or acknowledge and the result possibly
changed that person’s life.
Depending
on the culture, religion or heritage you come from, different signs appear in
our lives and we all have them in the unconscious of our minds. However,
depending on if you wish to live by choice or chance you choose to
read into these signs or ignore them.
What is a sign?
They are like messengers of important information about your current or future
life. They can be subtle reflections of what is going on with you or inside of
you. They work in different ways and forms;
Dreams- Have you ever had a recurring dream where perhaps you remember
symbols, words, phrases, people or even a song?
Conversations- Often these are fragments or slips of the tongue. There
is always a reason we have a conversation with someone. I was once on a flight
and sat next to a total stranger who told me she had studied at the same
boarding school as me, although much more senior to me and had later gone on to
study the same degree as me at a different university to mine. She got married
soon after her graduation and had two children. I was still not a graduate at
the time but met a woman who seemed to fit the exact description of what my
life would be in the future. I only didn't know it at the time. At the end of
the flight she discovered she had been sitting in the wrong seat all along and
had misread her boarding pass. I conclude from this little story that
you must listen carefully and take in all that you hear. It's important to not
think much about what you are going to say, but to infact live in the moment.
Random thoughts- When you are doing something seemingly normal do you
get random thoughts that run through your mind. You may hear of a random topic
or person, almost like a tangent it does not relate to your present activity,
but a few days later the same thought or person runs through your mind or even
crops up in your real life. We all live such moments, but very few of us
actually pay attention to these thoughts and wonder why?
Media- Sometimes scenes, commentary can all be interpreted as a message
that is being conveyed to you. Books, billboards, magazines and nowadays even
printed words or phrases we read on t-shirts or in the social media can feel
like they are jumping out at you and giving you the answer you need. Read your
fortune cookie next time, you never know!
People (known/unknown) - Everyone is put into your path to cross with
you or meet you at a junction of your life. You must not disregard these people;
they are supposed to represent an answer for you. Most of all don't forget that
you could also be a messenger for someone else. I once kept meeting the same
guy in the elevator when I worked in a bank. I decided to say hello one day and
it turned out this guy was a neighbour of mine who lived on the floor above me.
All these years I had never met him in my home elevator, but instead I was
supposed to meet him in my work elevator. Next time you have an
"elevator" meeting, perhaps you should seize those seconds and say
hello.
These are but a few of the ways by which we see
signs and the believers like myself often choose to pursue them further. Others,
who are indifferent to such anecdotes, merely regard them as happy coincidences
of life. I agree with the latter and it is possible that many of these
"signs" are just happy pills to keep us smiling through the day. However,
I also think there are times one must take those leaps of faith and actually
follow the signs. You won't know whether they're good or bad until you test
them right?
This time I decided to consider the reasons why
others like myself would consider paying attention to these signs and launched
a question to a group of around 20 individuals and gave them multiple choice
answers, also allowing room for additional input from their side. My question
was simple; You believe in signs because, a) they are like messengers of
information that bring me closer to the solution b) God is sending his answers
in this anonymous fashion c) I just feel better following them, they act as a
reassuring device.
This mini survey brought out a perfect balance
of answers, but what I noticed a lot was that many chose to interlink their
responses by using either A and B or B and C. I concluded from my research that
as human beings we always need answers to everything and many of us like to
hear these from a third party or in the form of a sign. Most of the time these
answers actually lie within us, but we have this urge to search outside. Our
brain works in a complex way and the uncertainties that lie within us are comforted
by these positive signs that we see or hear in the exterior. In cases where you
have a faith in God, well as Albert Einstein said coincidence is Gods way of
remaining anonymous. We reaffirm our faith in Him by accepting that these
signs are anonymous messages he wants to send you in order to help you thorough
a problem. I.e. our prayers have been answered.
I want to end this piece asking you all a
famous question which has eternally been considered as the statement which is
used as a tool for dealing with acceptance. If signs and anecdotes in our life
are meant to lead the way for us and guide us towards the solution or at least
part of the solution and there is a force in the universe that pushes you
towards or away from an outcome, is it always true that the result is always
for the best?
Does everything happen for a reason? Are all the outcomes, even the most
negative ones like death or terminal illnesses meant to happen because what you
are meant to accept from them are the actual lessons they teach you? I end on
this note and no prizes for guessing what I will be embarking on next.
Special thanks to a few close friends who have
contributed to this piece by providing me motivation, data and lived examples
of "serendipity" with me.
