Can you think of a time when a chance event changed your life? I think we can all think of a moment when some coincidence set us off a new path, like a nudge on a line of dominoes. Maybe it was some random conversation that led to a job, or a class that sparked a lifelong passion or a new career. Maybe it was the party you went to on a whim where you met your future spouse. One tiny nudge, and our lives are forever changed.
My domino moment happened when I was twenty. I was biking down a city street when suddenly my bag caught in my bike wheel and sent me sailing over the handlebars. In the emergency room the doctor looked up at the x-ray and paused. "Your collarbone's fine," he said slowly, but I don't know what this is," and he pointed to a dark mass the size of a fist next to my heart. Months of radiation banished the tumor, but I wonder sometimes - if it hadn't been for the careless slinging of a bag of groceries over my bike handles, how long would it have crouched there, growing, sending out its poison?
Once in a while they happen, those chances that turn our lives on a dime, that nudge us here or there along the road. A random conversation, like the one with my parents that sent me on the path to become a teacher. Two strangers meeting, like the time a nice young man offered to carry my guitar. He still carries it thirty years later, and I'm so grateful for that domino moment that brought his kind smile and quiet strength into my life.
What's one of your domino moments, looking back, that brought you to where you are today?
Some people would say it's all just chance, a throw of the dice. Others would call those moments God's intervention: holy gifts. I'm not sure what to think. Life is so complicated, with all of our criss-crossing, intersecting lives unfolding; we're all crammed in here running around like ants in a giant anthill, touching each other's lives every moment. Who knows, I wonder - maybe sometime I was a domino moment for someone, and I never knew.
We like to think we're in charge, but that's an illusion, mostly. Maybe it's better to be willing to step aside and let fate take us where it will.
So here's to chance, both the lucky coincidences and the tragic ones, and to the mystery of our unfolding lives. There are still new adventures ahead!