I came up with this title earlier today and the alliteration was just so delicious I had to figure out a post to go with it!

I was thinking today about how some of the absolute most wonderful things and people in my life have come out of entirely random situations.  Very often at the outset of said random events, I find myself wondering something like, “How on earth did I end up at this job?” or “Never in a million years would I have thought I’d live in this state.”  I look through my resume and see that I’ve been so many things from deli girl to dialysis case worker; from camp counselor to cake decorating school drop out; from high demand neighborhood Red Cross certified babysitter to house foster mom for teens.  I’ve got a list a mile long of random skills I could bust out on demand!

After a while, I just learned to embrace the opportunity, regardless of how off-the-wall it seemed.  I think about so many decisions that I’ve made that I never gave a second thought to, but have now become such significant moments in my life as a result of the events that followed the decision.

For instance, never could I have dreamed what community and soul-shaping moments I would cherish every Friday night at Tia Chucha’s when I first picked out Luis Rodriguez’s Always Running from the dusty stacks in the basement of my graduate library.  I could list a hundred happenstances that have yielded such incredibly rich relationships and experiences–the awesomeness of it is enough to whelm me right over!

Ultimately, this reality empowers me to continue to be open to new people, new experiences, new paths, and new places, because I have no idea just what kind of treasure may be waiting therein!  Sometimes the treasure is a beautiful person, sometimes it is a new skill, sometimes it is a hard [but ever so valuable] lesson, sometimes it is a sweet affirmation, sometimes it is a glimpse of love, sometimes it is a thrilling inspiration, sometimes it is a tender healing, sometimes a needed redirection, sometimes a longed for restoration, sometimes it is a deeper knowing, sometimes it is just frivolous fun.  The doors we encounter in life rarely have peepholes allowing us to preview what the other side holds in store for us–probably because if we saw it all we might not open the door.

I guess I prefer the mystery and adventure of it all and in the end, I know I will endure the bumps and bruises I may sustain along the trek because I have learned that the journey is just as poignant as arriving–that is, if there is ever truly an arriving at all!