Kismet

I wrote this post a while back and saved it - and then I read on a friend's blog today about how some meetings seem fated, which made me recall that I never got around to publishing this one, so here goes.

Time for a little story.

Travis and I were talking the other night about whether things happen for a reason. You know, if you just meet people, or if they're brought into your life by chance for a purpose.

I totally believe in kismet and karma and all that. "Fate" isn't a word I like to use personally, but I think things happen for a very specific reason. You can make of it what you want - it's not like you have no choices - but there are a lot more choices and opportunities presented in a day than we realize. I track my last 18 months to one very specific moment. I don't know why, but I feel like this was a big turning point for me. Know what it was?

Walking into the Godiva at Millenia Mall one afternoon.

That was it. But listen, I mean, I NEVER go into a Godiva! EVER! But for some reason, I wanted a chocolate-covered strawberry that day. Which is what Luerne always brought home to Lower Seven when she worked at Godiva during the Stetson years. I hadn't had one of those in years. And lo and behold, there she was.

Now, this is going to seem like I'm assigning ENTIRELY too much responsibility to Luerne, but I feel like if that moment hadn't happened, my life would be very different. Or if I'd handled that moment differently...

If I hadn't gone in for a chocolate, we wouldn't have arranged a lunch date.

If we hadn't arranged a lunch date, I might have not gotten to talking about my old life - about singing, performing, theatre, all those things that were urgent in my life back when we'd been friends at Stetson, the things I'd just kind of let drift away.

Wouldn't have started looking for auditions.

Wouldn't have gone for Noises Off!.

Wouldn't have fallen in love with theatre again and done show after show.

Wouldn't have made all these friends.

Wouldn't have made a life of my own and slowly come to realize that the life I'd made for myself wasn't mine.

And all of this - the theatre, the singing, the joy, the busy life, the friends, the love, the endings, the beginnings - all of it would be a memory that never existed.

Can you imagine what might not have happened for me?

I feel like I have the kismet of that chance encounter to thank for my whole life right now - every performance, every solid review, every good date, every fun evening with friends, it all really goes back to that moment at Godiva, if you think about it.

What simple lesson do I hope to impart from this?

When life whispers at you to stop for chocolate, listen.