A guest was coming to our office over lunch, so food was ordered for everyone. Except it turned out that due to a miscommunication, mine wasn’t there. No problem, I said. Happy accident. I’ll go out for lunch later. Maybe somebody up there is trying to tell me that I should eat out today.
I was just going to a nearby restaurant, but a random lunch conversation led to somebody mentioning Tofu House, my favorite Korean restaurant. Great, I thought. Somebody up there must be telling me that that’s where I should go.
On my way back from Tofu House, there was a road work going on at an intersection where I was normally going to make a right turn. I decided that that’s a sign that I should keep going straight. I can just get back to the office in a different way.
It was a hot day, and this road was going to go right in front of my favorite smoothie shop. Surely that must also be a sign? So I made a stop and got myself a smoothie.
At this point, I was starting to get excited. It started to feel like a series of serendipitous events was happening to me. Is this going somewhere? Wherever that is, I’m feeling lucky today.
I resumed my drive back to the office, and because I was driving a road I don’t normally take, in this one complicated intersection I ended up in a wrong lane that forced me to a wrong road. A series of no U turn and no left turn prevented me from taking an obvious way back. The detour is getting big.
See, something IS happening! This cannot be a coincidence! Maybe I’ll encounter a future soul mate? Love of my life (OK, maybe not, I’m already married.) Save somebody’s life? Find a million dollar?
I looked around. Nothing. I kept driving and looking around. Still nothing. I eventually came back to the office parking lot. The trail of serendipity is gone, abruptly.
I still can’t shake that off from my head as I write this. I was convinced that this was going to take me somewhere. What clue did I miss?
Suddenly, I’m not feeling lucky anymore.