There has been a lot of serendipity in my life recently. I like it.
Someone recently asked me what I understood by the word and I said I saw it as 'The Happy Coincidence of What Was Meant To Be'. I think I'll make that the title of my biopic. Anyway, we both agreed that it was a lovely word - Serendipity. Yum!
There are of course, bits that cause me some confusion. For instance, I didn't want to be a Buddhist this Wednesday, but didn't want to wimp out without good cause; everything worth doing needs discipline. But then my youngest daughter forgot that her room had been changed around recently. She misjudged a corner and tripped,falling straight into a wall and allowing her tiny, romanesque nose take the full force of the hit. The screams were no doubt heard on your street too. The nose bled and became swollen and there are the dark, tell tale thunder clouds of bruising threatening her from under the skin. No chanting for me that night, oh no!
Now, was that serendipity; happening as it did, 5 minutes before I was due to leave for somewhere I didn't want to go? I doubt it, because it wasn't a 'happy coincidence', rather it was an unhappy one. But, the result was the same: Will I? Won't I? Will I? OooooooooOOOOoooo!!! I definitely won't!.
Thankfully, an hour later, my daughter had trotted happily off to guides with a budgie cage strapped to her face for protection whilst her brother, sister and I, sat traumatised on the sofa; the memory of her face so swollen and red, that we thought she'd definitely done permanent damage, rerunning itself amongst the spots before our eyes. It turned out to be the puffiness of an elfin face unused to crying. Those tears rarely fell and we had no blueprint to go on.
Since I have two teenagers and The Elf, who is 10 -there is a lot of arguing in our house at the moment. It never used to be that way but someone swapped first one and then the other in the middle of the night and since we have an elf as the third, there are no prizes for guessing who did it. I hope my real kids are OK, wherever they are. They should be half way through teaching their adoptive parents table manners, the concept of chores and the importance of respecting your mother by now. These two are clueless! However, they must have formed a bond with the elf-child because all arguing stopped for an hour and her nose was in more danger of being damaged by being dragged off one knee and onto another whilst they cooed and kissed-better, offered up sweets and snuggles and drinks and flannels. For the first time in a long time, I saw my family work together, and I was proud! I couldn't get anywhere near her to soothe my own battered soul, but I sensed it was time to step back in those minutes.
The black-sheep of serendipity, also gave me time to achieve a writing deadline that I had. It took another 15 hours, but I needed them all.
So, serendipity or not, a bruised nose is not always a bad thing.
PS. In order to level-out the karma, I have been asked to tell you that on the 11th June, from 1.30 to 4pm, Drolma Buddhist Centre is hosting an open day in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough.
Dud Prototype tutu ingredients £42
