S for Serendipity

I LOVE this word!  It has a wonderful definition and if you say it with a smile, it rolls happily off your tongue!  But here you go, the dictionary definition from Webster’s New World College Dictionary: n. the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.

Did you catch the second word in the definition?  “GIFT.”  Wow!  That in itself makes me smile.  I adore getting a “gift” I never expected or even hinted for!  I watched a girlfriend who was so depressed she was talking about suicide literally do a complete reversal due to serendipity.  We were discussing pros and cons at her kitchen table about dying and going on.  I was scared and crying, she was beaten down and also crying.  Then the doorbell rang.  She didn’t make any move to rise or answer the door so I went to answer.  I peeked through the peep hole and saw nothing but red flowers.  I cracked the door open slightly and said, “Don’t leave.  Hang on and I will get the person who lives here.”  I received a grunted “Okay” from behind the flowers.  I turned and almost ran back to the kitchen table and said, “Gail, you have to answer this one.  It’s official business.  Hurry.  The guy is waiting!”  I watched as she laboriously got up from the chair and slowly started shuffling to the front door.  I followed saying, “Hurry, Gail!  This is important!”  I watched her pick up the pace of the shuffling a little more.  She finally reached the door and I breathed a prayer the guy was still there since it had seemed to take forever for her to reach the door.  I stood by her, saw her pull the door knob toward her with her head down, then slowly lift her head to gaze out to see who was there.  And then I received a moment of serendipity!  Gail’s mouth first dropped open as she saw the flowers, then turned up at the corners as it went from shock to a tentative smile.  Her hands literally shook as she reached both toward the flowers.  The man holding them smiled and pushed them gently into her outstretched hands and arms.  He said softly, “The card is right here, ma’am.  Have a wonderful day!”  And he beamed a huge smile her way, turned, and disappeared.

Gail stood on the porch, just outside the door, looking from the flowers to the now empty space the young man had occupied, then back to the flowers.  Her eyes closed softly, slowly as she buried her face in the aromatic roses.  When she opened her eyes once more, they shone with tears.  I simply stood by, basking in my own joy at the timing of the arrival of the beautiful flowers.

Watching Gail, I softly and quietly reached for the card and removed it from the bouquet and asked, “Would you like to read the card?”  Her tear-filled eyes, now overflowing, turned to me in almost a plea, and I added, “Or do you want me to read it to you?”  A nod.

I took the card from its small envelope as she once more buried her face in the flowers.  I quickly scanned the small card and suddenly could not see through my own tears.  I wiped my eyes, cleared my throat with a small cough, and read aloud, “I know we fought, but my love for you is even stronger today.  I cherish you, honey.  I’m so very sorry.  YOU ARE MY LIFE!   All my love, xxxxx.”

Gail looked at me and she said, “Who could have known?  Read it again, PLEASE!”  I did, and I must have read it a half dozen more times before I left her and went home, safe in the knowledge that she would not kill herself.  You see, she knew she was loved because of an act of love that was serendipitous!  And by way of that serendipity, I had experienced my own serendipity by seeing my friend overwhelmingly choose life over death.  Ahhh!  The wonder of it all!

My truth about serendipity?  It has to be the most wonderful thing in all the world!  You can’t buy it.  You can’t search it out.  It happens.  When you least expect it, serendipity is there to strengthen the spirit and offer another wonder in life!  Like I said, I adore getting unexpected gifts like that!  How cool is that?