Life's Serendipities

ser·en·dip·i·ty  n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties

1.The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.

3. An instance of making such a discovery.

Today in the Netherlands it is Sinterklaasdag, 5 December.  It's the traditional day for the Dutch to do their gift-giving for the Christmas season (in spite of American influences seeping in to augment gifts on Christmas day).  Think Santa Claus and presents.  Today.

Two years ago today (though it was a Saturday then), I moved to the Netherlands from America to begin a new life with the Dutch woman I married two months later.  It was totally coincidental that the day I arrived was Sinterklaasdag.  We didn't plan it that way.  But every year since then, Astrid and I will celebrate this day as our biggest and best gift to each other.

That's serendipity.  And, YES, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

I have always loved serendipitous moments.  They may be more rare than "normal," but maybe that's what makes them so "fortunate" and "by accident."

This past September, when we spent a few days in England with friends (and met CherryPie, remember?), we had another serendipitous moment that still drops my jaw to the ground.  As we strolled by the Royal Crescent in Bath, I looked up to see the entablature above the columns and stopped dead in my tracks.

There they were, just as plain as day.  From the entire length of the Crescent, a row of 30 houses with entablatures above, these were the two we just happened to see:  a heart (Hart) and a windmill side-by-side.  In Bath, England, of all places.

That's serendipity.

Of all the gifts I've ever received in my lifetime, these rank up there at the top.  They "just happened" by accident.  Most fortunate because they didn't cost a cent and I'll never forget them!

If you believe in Santa Claus, I'm sure you have your own serendipitous memories.  Feel free to share them here...and then store them up as the gifts that can never be lost or taken away from you.

And let's keep our eyes open.  You never know when a "by accident" is just waiting to happen!

Collaboration

col·lab·o·ra·tion Noun
1. The action of working with someone to produce or create something.

Remember when Astrid and I had the good fortune to meet up with Vision and Verb cohort, Petra, back in February?  Well, chalk up another one:  our own virtual reality named CherryPie becoming real in England!

Here's where the collaboration comes in.

Astrid and I met each other as virtual realities on 31 August 2007 when we first commented on each other's Shutterchance blog that day.  Actually, she started it.  And true to Blogging Ettiquette 101, I followed suit.

Just before that time in my life, I had been typing away day after day on my other blog, documenting all the traveling I was doing with my ex-partner.  Half of every month we lived in Atlanta.  The other half we lived first in Hannover, Germany, and later in Amsterdam.  Because of all the pictures I was taking, I wanted to start highlighting certain images in a bigger/better space for just one image/day.  Bigger images, fewer words.

That's when I picked Shutterchance (SC), at the end of 2006, a photoblog originating in the UK. By the time Astrid joined the same photoblog and found me in 2007, I was already pretty "established" in the core group of Shutterchancers, building a sweet little community.  In just a matter of time, Astrid, too, became part of the core.

Within 3 months of our first comments to each other, we had the chance to meet while I was  in Amsterdam...and, well, you know how they say the rest is history!   By 5 February 2010 we were legally married, living together here in the Netherlands.

That was last year, and for our honeymoon, we flew to England to be with Shutterchance friends, meeting up with 14 of them.  THIS year, in celebration of our 4th anniversary of meeting virtually, with those first comments, we flew back to England and had another meet-up.

And this is where CherryPie comes in! 

Our SC friends collaborated and planned a meet-up at Dudley's Black Country Living Museum on Sunday, 4 September, while we were visiting.  CherryPie, from England, who visits and comments regularly on my SC blog, read about the meet-up and wrote me that she would like to join us, even though everyone else was from SC. She was willing to brave the unknown...just so we V&Vers could meet!  And we did.

Are we happy or what?!  (Astrid collaborated by taking the image.)  Two women of a certain age met each other virtually on the WWW because certain other women conspired and collaborated to make a blog called Vision and Verb.  Within a short matter of time, BINGO:  they too/two were able to meet in real life.

My guess is this is not the last time it will happen...for me or for the rest of us.  Don't you wonder who will be next?  (Yes, Astrid and I are taking reservations should you like to make it to the Netherlands!)