A Medley of Serendipity

A word with a history is one that many writers acknowledge as part of life - serendipity. Created by author Horace Walpole, he coined the term after an older name for Sri Lanka which was Serindip. In 1754, Walpole formed the word serendipity.

The story surrounds the activities of The Three Princes of Serendip. They traveled together and they made many discoveries. Most of these were by mishap. They made the discoveries through accidents which had nothing to do with what they were searching for.

This is what happens to me almost every time I volunteer at a community based bookstore run by donations and a staff of volunteers.

Once a week, when I open, I await that one grand moment which always happens at ExLibris Bookstore.

The normal run of opening the store is to do a walk-through. Almost every time I perform this ritual, a serendipitous event of some kind takes place.

A book may mysteriously fall off the shelf when I pass by. Or, in an otherwise perfectly orderly place, an interesting tome has been left on the countertop. When straightening the shelves, a book may be placed strangely out of category. Usually, any of these outstanding finds will have something to do with a current quest for knowledge.On this particular day there weren't any standout books.

It really is quite unusual if a morning at the bookstore passes without even one serendipity.

As seen on television in a New Year's blurb, one of the most overused phrases of the year was voted to be "the aha moment." Though it is probably true, the flip side of this vote shows what people are thinking about. Obviously, there must be quite a few people having these aha moments.

The same phrase can be expressed with the word epiphany.

If such a phrase is overused, the amounts of people having epiphanies are abundant. Are we having those moments of epiphanies en mass?

Please excuse the digression, and come back to the bookstore tale.

Since there were no serendipitous finds or titles leaping out at me, I went on to other tasks.

After changing the sign on the door to say open, I saw a timid seeming lady coming up the sidewalk with a shopping bag full of books to donate.

She had sparkling white hair and was small with a very humble demeanor that led me to perceive her as an angel. In any event, I chose to believe that she was.

And I somehow knew her shopping bag contained the serendipitous find I had expected to see earlier in the morning. And indeed it did!

Inside the shopping bag were treasures discussing how to integrate the soul into the corporate world, and about balancing the perceptual with the rational, and how writers must write for emotional survival and don't really have a choice about doing it. By the way, the shopping bag was incredibly heavy for such a small woman to have carried up the steps and into the store.

So on this day, I had the rare privilege of an angel visiting in the sunlit hours of the morning.

Leaving the heavy laden shopping bag of gifts on the floor, she quickly and humbly scuffled out the door. I was there, donating my time, and the reward for what I gave was to receive the knowledge I was thirsting for.

If the angel lady had come at a later time, I wouldn't have had an opportunity to riffle through the contents of the shopping bag. I purchased quite a few of the books that she had donated - about eight of them.

As I have learned through repeated trials, giving is the same as getting. The spirit of giving attracts the polar opposite and begins a certain flow.

And now, on to the juicy stack of books that I purchased that day for two dollars each. Savoring the coincidence of that day and the sparkling visitor, I'll be reading from that magical collection and will relish the serendipitous moment each time I pick up one of those books from that morning of a special surprise.

ref
http://thesaurus.yourdictionary.com/metaphor