Hello dear readers – I write to you today from a little cabin perched on the rocky shores of north western Iceland. My niece and I have been planning this summer vacation for months. Since we arrived last week we have, every now and then said, with delight, “We are really here!”
There are many things to consider when planning a vacation … where to stay, what to do, what to take, rent a car or take a tour, and on and on. And despite all the hours of careful planning, when you arrive at your destination, there are the inevitable surprises and, yes, sometimes disappointments. For example, when we booked this little cabin we had an idea in our mind of what it would look like based on the photos on their internet posting but when we pulled up, we looked at each other and said, almost simultaneously, “Well, this is different than I expected.”
This has led me to thinking about how we respond to things when they are different than we anticipated. Surprises can be little things like what the clothing we ordered online really looks like when we out it on, to the big things like this marriage is not at all what I dreamed it would be. One is a small disappointment while the other impacts all of life and might lead to a major change. Regardless of their magnitude, how we respond can make a big difference in the outcome. Angry? Impatient? Hurt? Disillusioned? Or can disappointments be turned to opportunity, surprise and in some cases gift?
As I was thinking about all of this I looked up the definition for serendipity. Serendipity is “The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way such as ‘a fortunate stroke of serendipity’.” so says the Oxford Dictionary. I have a friend who refers to things I might call coincidence as a ‘God – incident’, meaning there is no such thing as an accidental meeting or event but that everything has a spark of the divine in it and life is God infused whether we recognize it or not.
I am not sure that God had a hand in our choosing of this little cabin at the end of a long lonely road, in the middle of nowhere, but it has been a lovely retreat and it has given us the space to decompress and relax and soak in the beauty of the natural world around us. And that has been serendipitous.
Iceland is a country of vast open spaces, rugged coastline, ancient volcanic hills, and lovely welcoming people. And while some of it has been surprising I can say unequivocally it has all been gift.
And a well deserved gift Nancy. Always delighted to read your commentary. Thanks for sharing.