You can run, but sometimes you just can’t hide (and maybe you shouldn’t anyway).

(Posted by Gayle)

My brain usually contains a plethora of ideas.  I told a friend of mine recently that I don’t suffer from writer’s block.  More often I’m stuck in the land of writer’s unblock.  He thought I ought to market it as a product, but I don’t have a method to my madness.  I just have my madness!

Tonight I’ve been feeling pressure from myself to get a post written for tomorrow.  But it was Survivor night and “Grey’s” was on and I just didn’t want to multi-task.  Honestly Facebook seemed a whole lot more interesting that anything in my mind.  I’ve been wondering lately about writing a wandering essay on the use of Serendipity (the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way) as a tool in relationships – especially relationships that have the deck stacked against them from the start  – you know like us May Decemberers.  For Ron and me – 2008 has been one of our most serendipitous years ever.

I bargained with myself that once I finished Survivor and Grey’s and the news and Facebooking and the Daily Show and the Colbert Report that I would finally sit down and get to the post. I fired up my Mac and opened WordPress, but Ebay was calling.  We do have a Guys and Dolls themed wedding to attend in 142 days and I  have no idea what to wear.  And while I’m flipping around through pages on EBay why not go and visit Dixie’s wedding page and see what’s new.  Oh look she’s added some stuff about Guys and Dolls and gosh I haven’t read “Our Story” lately…

…How did we meet?… Now, if you were to ask Jeff this question, you’d get a 60-second tale about a book, a subway, and an email address. When you ask me this question, you get a 10-minute account involving philosophy, lingerie, metaphysics, and a benevolent, conspiring universe. You can ask Jeffrey for his shorter version, or scroll down to the end of this page, but here’s a severely – mercifully — abridged version of mine…

Hot damn! This “benevolent and conspiring universe” has now taken a turn and is conspiring for me to go ahead and write the darn post on serendipity.  I can avoid it no longer.  My evasion has put me directly onto a collision course with the very topic from which I am running.  And that is the point.

My many (sometimes seems like millions of) years of life are teaching me that this isn’t a random planet.  Things happen for reasons.  Maybe not all things and maybe every last single thing.  I don’t know.  I just don’t believe in accidents any more.   Ron and I faced and still face many challenges.  If you decide to commit your life to someone, a day will come when you are dared to keep going.  A day will come when things are excruciating.  When you crack the hardship open like a fortune cookie and look Fate in her face, you’ll find her partner Serendipity waiting.  She’s a quiet and gentle lady.  She waits for you to notice her.  She doesn’t whack you on top of the head.  She sends you an invitation, but she won’t drag you through the door.

Oh so many years ago, I – like Dixie – cried to the heavens for the right man to walk into my life.  A few days later, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to be exact, I was lonely.  I didn’t want to leave work and go home alone (my roommate had left the city for the holiday.)  Everyone was gone except for the person I liked least in the office.  The new “a$$hole” Ron was working late.  He was so arrogant, so much older than me, and so not likable.  But I wanted a drink and I really didn’t want to go to bar by myself.  I felt her nudge.  I asked Ron if he would like to get a drink a with me.   I wasn’t being forward (not my style anyway) – remember I didn’t even like him….

Ms. Sara N. Dipity has been with us ever since.  We celebrate our 22nd anniversary on the 22nd of this month.