Call it what you want: fate, destiny, I believe in it. I don’t believe in accidents. I do believe we have free choice, but I believe everything happens for a reason. We don’t always understand why things happen, but I believe there is an ultimate plan, and it just happens to be something beyond our comprehension… especially mine.
The other day I walked past a smashed flowerpot on the sidewalk. Not thinking much of it, I stepped around it and went on. I walked into my internship, asked my colleague how he was, and he proceeded to tell me a story.
He was heading out to his lunch break walking towards the bakery when he heard a loud crack. He looked up to the 5th floor to see the office secretary peeping her head out the office window. Apparently, she had set her pot of flowers on the ledge earlier in the day, forgot about them, and decided she’d open the window, which then pushed the flower pot off the ledge, sending them cascading down at 21 feet per second per second, which fell not more than 3 meters in front of my colleague, just going on his lunch break.
What if he had walked out to lunch two seconds earlier?
Today I couldn’t have been happier. I woke up to beautiful sunshine and fresh blanket of snow on the ground. Not to mention, today was the day I was leaving for Norway. Everything was running ironically smooth. I got to the train station early, my wagon stopped right in front of me (usually I end up running to the opposite end of the track, because they’ve been switched last minute), I had a seat all by myself with no neighbors (or screaming babies for that matter), the good songs were coming on my iPod on shuffle, and my window seat was the perfect place for a catnap in the sun. Things couldn’t have been better.
Then things started to go downhill.
My train ended up running 15 minutes late, causing me to miss my connecting train, which caused me to miss my bus to the RyanAir Airport (Frankfurt Hahn), ultimately causing me to miss my flight.
I was able to catch another flight... at a price, but the thought having 3 days in Norway ripped out of my hands is worth the nasty little gut feeling I get when I think about how much money I just spent.
Words can’t describe the feeling that I get when I hear the pre-departure emergency procedures explained in Norwegian, or pulling into my old driveway on Rosenkranzgata, and being greeted by my blonde-haired, blue-eyed brother and sister who never seem to stop growing. It’s the feeling of sitting around in my old living room on a Saturday night, having coffee and Norwegian boller while immersing in a conversing in the language I love most.
So, I won’t ask questions, like why tens of thousands of kids in Africa die from lack of clean water everyday, or why McCain chose Sarah Palin as VP, or why the good die young, why I’m lactose intolerant, why hundreds of people have died in the past week in Australian bush-fires, or why I missed my flight today. I just simply accept it, have faith in Him, and enjoy the beautiful ride ☺
Life is good.
