Serendipity

 No woman is useless

while she has a friend.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The quote has been changed from man to woman and from he to she to better fit with my thoughts!

What is it called when something extraordinary happens?  When the stars line up to create the unexpected.   Wikipedia calls serendipity a happy accident or a pleasant surprise. I lean toward calling it a miracle.

Today, one of the above-mentioned phenomena happened to me.  I choose to think that it was the Holy Spirit working quietly to give me something I may have needed or something a long lost friend may have wanted.

I attend Spirit of Christ Catholic Church every Sunday at 12:15 p.m. I always park on the south side, go in the south door, and sit on the east side of the church.  After years of the same thing, today I decided to sit on the west side of the church. I do not know why, it was an impulse to enter through the north door. As I was entering the church, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a young woman, a child and a man. The woman was frantically waving her hand as if she wanted to get my attention.  Taking a good look, I recognized a friend I have not seen for about six years. Seeing her was an exciting surprise!

We embraced and she introduced me to her husband. Her daughter, who I have not seen since she was around seven years old, is now fourteen years old.  What a special feeling I felt in seeing my friend. After mass we were able to talk and catch up on what had been going on in our lives. There was lots to share. I told her that if I had done my regular Sunday routine, we would never have met.  She said, "And I go to Holy Family but today I was running late and we decided to come to Spirit of Christ." We both realized that something mysterious had happened!

In talking to her, I realized how much I missed her friendship.  I felt good seeing her and her family. I know God wanted us to meet today. It could have been a coincidence but I figure it was a miracle! I do not want our miracle to go to waste so we will see each other soon and continue our friendship of long ago.

"There are two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein