Coincidences Make Life Interesting

Medicine Bow National Forest

When I was thirteen, I used to spend my summers in the Medicine Bow National Forest.  My grandfather had built and run a hunting lodge there, sold it, and then my father and aunt had it return to them in the late 80's.  The buildings were rundown and falling apart.  Our respective families tried--in vain--to get it back into top condition.  No running water on the premises meant we had to drive an hour and a half every couple of weeks into Laramie, Wyoming to do laundry.

As we would drive by the University of Wyoming, I always thought to myself, "I sure would like to go to college there."  I could imagine myself on campus.  It felt "right" to want to go there.

My traditional college attending age came and went.  I spent some time at a college in the Nebraskan town I lived in, and then had to begin working to pay off hospital bills I accrued when I was nineteen.  Time passed, and I figured I'd never go to college, much less UW.  And then, I turned twenty-eight.  I'd paid off my hospital bills, and decided I better get my behind to college so I could earn a decent living and get out of my parent's house.  Guess where I went.  Yep, UW.  When I did finally set foot on the campus as a student, it felt almost preordained.  At the very least, it's a fun coincidence.

My life is full of coincidences like that.  My husband is another one.  My grandmother called him my "mashad" (totally a phonetic spelling, by the way) the first time she met him.  A mashad is Italian for "match," as in "Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match.  Find me a find. Catch me a catch."  We weren't even dating.  I had the same feeling when I saw him walking down the street, before I'd ever met him.  It took a little under ten years, but we did end up married.

Next week, I get to welcome a guest to Motivation for Creation who is another of those coincidences.

In the early nineties, I read, no...devoured...this fascinating book about a woman with red hair who was kidnapped and forced to become part of a harem.  The story is about how she rose (connived) her way to the top of the harem and even the Empire.  I read the entire novel in one day.  Periodically, over the twenty-ish years since I read the book, I would think about it, and wonder who the author was, and what the name of the book was. 

Last summer, I read a post on Writer Unboxed about heroes that resonated with me.  The author was Colin Falconer, and I started following him on Twitter, and followed his blog, Looking for Mr. Goodstory.  I also won his newest release, Silk Road, from Corvus Books.  We have chatted every now and then, through blog comments and twitter, and he is a very gracious fellow.

Sidenote:  One of my embarrassing twitter stories involves him, and if you want to read it, you can go here.

This winter, one of Colin's blog posts was about his book, Harem.  (Do you see where this is going?)  After some discussion, and Colin sending me Harem so I could read it and see if I recognized it, I realized that this was indeed the book and the author I had enjoyed so much twenty-ish years ago.

And now we are exchanging guest posts!  Maybe it isn't a big deal, but when I think about all the changes in my life leading up to me becoming a writer, and then just the happenstance of reading that one post on Writer Unboxed, I have to shake my head.

Those "in the right place at the right time" moments help my optimism stay in the top of the Optimism Register.  They help me believe things can end up right, even if things look so very wrong from my current point of view.  It's coincidences like these and others that make me believe in everyday magic.

Colin will be visiting on June 12 to share about his misadventures on a book tour in Mexico, and I'll be posting over at Looking For Mr. Goodstory on the 15th about my experiences with psychopaths when I worked on the Criminal Justice Unit of the State Mental Hospital.  I hope you will come back next week and give Colin a fine welcome!

Do you have coincidences like these in your life?  Please share them in the comments section.  I'd love to hear about them!