Serendipity Happens

ser·en·dip·i·ty  noun \ˌser-ən-ˈdi-pə-tē\: luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for 

Serendipity is one of my favorite words and not just because John Cusack made a movie about it.  I love the way it sounds and love when it recognize it happening in my life.  

This process of radically simplifying my life has put a spot light on many of my fears, but it also reinforcing what is really important to me and helping me redefine how I want to live the next chapter of my life. And, during the downsizing and digitizing, I've come across some lovely old memories and let go of a lot of stuff that really doesn't mean that much to me.  I'm not looking to completely rid myself of all of the pretty or personal items, just simplify and choose wisely what I want to carry with me to Santa Fe.

One of the items I considered selling was a small statue of a woman that I bought in a friend's garage sale about 10 years ago.  She's a little worse for wear and at some point someone glued her hands back together, but I was drawn to her quiet serenity the moment I saw her sitting on that driveway next to a floral loveseat.  Despite my continued affection for this lovely lady, I did put a price tag on her and set her out on my own driveway during my moving sale back in October.  She didn't sell though and I had been debating about trying to sell her on Craigslist or take her with me.  I even thought about giving her to my friend in Santa Fe so she would "remain in the family".

Then Serendipity revealed herself to me again a couple nights ago when I was putting out the few Christmas decorations decided to keep.  I was standing in my living room thinking about where to put things when I noticed that my statue looked a lot like my Grandmother in a photograph I had hanging on my wall.  I wrote about this picture a while back in my Wide Open Spaces post, but up until a  month or so ago it had been hanging in another room so I'd never made the connection. 

I was so surprised by the resemblance that I had to take a picture just to be sure I wasn't imagining it.  In that moment, I felt lucky for noticing this valuable reminder of my Grandmother's love and knew that she and the statue would be in the car with me when I head south next Spring.   And, now I have a name for my statue.  It's THEDA, which was my Grandmother's first name and seems to suit her perfectly.