If: As Chance Would Have It

A meteor crashed and crackled through the atmosphere a couple of days ago. A friend saw the flames and was stunned. He said the fireball seemed to have landed right here in Pacific Grove, and I missed the whole thing, of course. So, I began wondering how many near misses have happened to me, or almost to me. The innocent walk down the street blithely unaware of how close they are to disaster. I get a funny feeling I have had far more close calls than I'll ever know.

Comedians make whole slapstick routines hilarious based on near misses. Remember Tim Allen or the Marx Brothers? They appeared perfectly clueless as whole rooms collapsed around them.

On the other hand, there are really close calls that the whole world watches as they unfold. Michael Phelps's famous 100 Fly finish at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 is one of those. A hundredth of a second - the length of a fingernail - brought him fame and glory, while Cavic was defeated (defeat seems like such an overstatement in a really close race). Dara Torres lost her 50 freestyle by a hundredth of a second at the same Games. Whether it was luck or a true win is hard to figure. If Dara had done just one little thing differently as she swam like mad for 50 meters - and I mean just one thing, she would have won. If - the word sums up the idea of fate or chance in such a nutshell.

Don't you just wonder sometimes how you missed seeing a 20-dollar bill on the floor when someone else spotted it? Or miss the lottery grand prize by just one number? So close! The fun of it's in the retelling and sharing the agony of that realization with friends. Everyone has a few stories about how close they came to some disaster or glory.

That little word: If.

If only the bat had swung a little lower, the batter would have hit the bases-loaded home run. Instead, he whiffs and gets the final out. Tragedy! If only...There are so many ways that possibility can play out - and has been used as a story-telling device in movies and books. If only Cary Grant had realized that Deborah Kerr loved him, had been injured and tried so hard to get back to the Empire State Building in An Affair to Remember, everything could have been so much better for them both.

The thing is that possibility, when viewed as a spur for more focused effort in the future, provides such food for thought and speculation. You see it the other way though, and sit there fearfully avoiding what might happen? The world becomes a bleak and ugly place. I missed the meteor show, but then again, it missed me, my town and roared harmlessly into the ocean (I assume). Whew! And I never even saw it coming - or going.

Step Into the Room

"It does not matter how many breaths you take in your lifetime.  What matters is what takes your breath away."  


Getting caught up in minutiae and small worries every day can steal away our precious time and deprive us of opportunities to be awed, to stand in wonder.  Big things happen every little moment of the day, but are we prepared for them?  


Unfortunately, no.  


A young person may not know this so well -- although I know some who do -- but a lifetime is only so long; we never know really, exactly know how long, but the clock is ticking.   


Here we sit in front of the TV, spending our precious time, using our lives up.  Here we sit in our cars, stuck in traffic, not taking any opportunity to stand in awe.  Here we are thinking we are useless or inferior or unworthy when, in truth, we are none of those things.  Here we go believing ugly things about ourselves and sit, shriveling up and sad, blinking fearfully over in the corner of a bored-out-of-our-minds existence.  


Sitting there waiting for something good to show up in the day, or our whole life long, is a really big gamble, and the odds are stacked against us.  The chances are pretty slim that a magical fairy godmother is going to tap you on the shoulder with a golden wand and grant your wishes and whisk you into a different existence.  


Haven't you heard that when a person is told they only have six months to live, they cut loose and do what they've really always wanted to do?  They realize that the time is now, the gift is there before them, and they finally decide to open it up and take a good look at what's inside.  


But you -- what about you?  What are you waiting for?  


Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. - Seneca


If you stood in the doorway of a very large room filled with gifts and never opened them, were timid, afraid to go over and pick one up and hold it, wouldn't that be the same thing as never doing the things you say you've always wanted to?  


If you wait and wonder, sit and mull it over, do not go forward with what you imagine, it is as if the play is over, the audience is leaving and the cleaning crew is beginning to sweep the floor.  


Be bold, try on that new hat, go out into the day and take notice of what's really before you.  Your gifts are more plentiful than you can possibly imagine.  The room of unwrapped surprises is limitless, infinite, and has nothing to do with fear.  Fear keeps you standing in the doorway, unprepared to take the opportunities within you.  Step into that room, reach for the boundaries of your imagination.  You'll never succeed in finding them.  And that is just plain good luck.