I believe in serendipity. This is a story of how a ceramic tray connected me to an old friend and a new pair of boots. Back in November, a woman contacted me to commission a ceramic tray for a wedding she was attending in February. Due to a series of unfortunate delays that were out of my control, the tray wasn’t complete until two weeks ago. Because of the unusually long turnaround time, I promised her that I would find someone to deliver the tray to New York City, as close as possible to where she lived. I believe that what happened next was wholly serendipitous.
It was not easy to find someone to take the tray to lower Manhattan. People generously offered to deliver it to midtown, the upper West Side or East Side. I put up notices on Facebook and a Yahoo group, and finally heard from an old friend who is a professor at NYU, offering to deliver the tray to the exact location. Couldn’t be more perfect, except for one caveat: how would I get the tray to her? She lives a half hour away from me, and a big snowstorm was about to hit the tri-state area.
We negotiated a time and location that would be mutually convenient for us both. This meeting served a dual purpose. I could safely deliver the tray to her, and it would get to it’s destination in time for the wedding. And, I would get to spend time and catch up with my good friend. Our crazy schedules and the distance between our homes has prevented us from spending time together. We had so much to catch up on, and I excitedly anticipated our reunion.
At 3:30, I was sipping my tall Americano, comfortable in an upholstered brown velveteen chair at the Starbucks in New Canaan, an affluent community in Southern Connecticut. A short time later, my friend breezed in, a little disheveled from her stressful trip over, and we dove immediately into a two and half hour conversation that we didn’t want to end.
One of the things I love about this friend is her ability to tell a good story, and I was regaled with her colorful accounts of her pre-marriage dating history, among the many provocative and fun topics we jumped to and from. I wonder what our fellow coffee drinkers were thinking of the two middle-aged women laughing out loud, slapping the table, covering our mouths, bursting into fits of giggles.
Time flies when you are in the company of a good friend, especially when the dynamic conversation flows like a Vente Latte. In the blink of an eye, it was 6:30, time for her to go to her next meeting and for me to head home and cook dinner for my family.
Once outside, I was upset to find a truck blocking my car. As I entered the shoe store, and asked them to please move the truck so I could leave, I noticed the sign: 30% to 50% sale on most shoes and boots. Shoes ‘N More is a high end shoe store that I only patronize when a sale like this is going on. The hum of the vacuum was a clear signal that the store was about to close, but a sale like this is hard to pass by. I needed a new pair of boots, and I was curious as to what I might find.
I asked the storeowner if it was okay for me to try on boots, and she said, “Sure, take your time.” She even helped me decide which of two pairs to purchase. At the checkout, I noticed that the cashier looked familiar. She said the same. We finally figured out that we knew each other from a store she owned 15 years earlier, in my hometown of Katonah, NY! Boo Girls was my daughter’s favorite store. It was a real treat to buy the funky clothes from this high-end teen boutique, and I spent many hours sitting on the high-heeled boot chair, talking to this owner. This was the coveted store, the one where relatives took her for her birthday, and the one where we took her on special occasions. We have many fond memories of Boo Girls.
I felt like I was catching up with another ‘old friend’, someone from my past, about whom I knew very little, in contrast to my good friend in the coffee shop up the block. But our common link to Katonah led to a deeper conversation, a new pair of boots, and a feeling that everything happens for a reason. Had the conversation in the coffee shop ended at any other time, the truck would not have been blocking my car. I would not have entered the store. Had the sale not been going on, I would not have purchased my favorite new pair of chocolate brown boots. Had I not purchased the boots, I would never have struck up a conversation with the storeowner. Had I not asked where I knew her from, I would never have connected back to a delicious memory of my daughter as a budding pre-adolescent, enamored with designer clothes, planting the seeds for the fashion designer 21 year-old beauty that she is today.
So, no, I don’t believe that things happen by chance. I left that store with a smile on my face, filled with warm memories of my afternoon and evening, with an old friend, an old acquaintance, stories of dates from hell, thirty years ago and today, updates on career paths, the growth and wonder of our children and dreams come true. I left feeling full, a sense of my heart expanding with the wonder of the world unfolding exactly as it should.
Please share a story of unusual circumstances leading up to a serendipitous moment in your life.
