Fate versus chaos – is our path set or do we bumble along randomly? Synchronicity – the concept that there are no coincidences – is hard to resist when so often we are brought amazing and wondrous things seemingly by some miracle. On the other hand, shockingly bad things can seem to randomly occur just as easily. It’s funny how we think that good things must be fate and bad things must be random bad luck.
I have said before that I think the universe gives us free choice over the little things that ultimately do not deter us from major milestones; but that the milestones are set. I also believe we are shaped in preparation for those milestones. Not that the milestones have a schedule, but they certainly seem to have an order.
When I was very young (around 13), I desperately wanted to learn guitar, write lyrics and to sing. Those dreams were, at the time, not an option for me. Quite the opposite – I was told I did not have a good voice and should not sing, and by no means would I be learning guitar. I was to grow up to get a technical degree and do technical things… or else. So that’s what I did. Never once did I think to defy my parent’s wishes; and the dream stayed a only dream for decades.
But it would not go away. A constant in the back of my mind, I wanted to learn guitar and sing the lyrics that I so often wrote. When I finally was free to pursue my dream (in my mid-thirties), it became that much stronger. By now, however, I had to overcome an innate insecurity that I could not sing, and the massive stage freight that comes with a parent implanting in you that you CAN’T. But the dream was too strong to resist – fate pulling me to where it wanted me to be all along. Long sidetracked, I returned to the path that my life was supposed to be on in the first place. How? Because the right people came into my life at the right time, and the right lessons were learned just when I needed them, and I was encouraged, enabled and shaped – prepared – by life to resume my path.
I think both the good and the bad can shape you in preparation for what is next. For example, I bet you have learned some lessons the hard way. You may look back on it and say well I needed to learn that lesson to prepare me for where I am now; or where I am going. Here’s the really hard part – what if your path is not a happy one? If we are ever to let be what will be, we have to believe that what will be is good. I think we have to trust that the path fate has chosen for us is one that ultimately leads to happiness, joy, love and fulfillment. Maybe thats naive; but it works for me : )
