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Serendipity

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I asked my friend Bard to give me a random word. He gave me serendipity. What a fancy schmancy sounding word. I have come across this word before. I feel like I should know the meaning of this word but I do not. Serendipity is described as the fact of finding interesting or valuable things by chance. Is me asking for a random word and getting this word an example of serendipity in of itself? I would think so.

I now have the idea to take a chance and visit a random website and see what I discover. I went to Google and asked for a website that takes me to a random website. The first result was  theuselessweb.com. I clicked the random button on that website and that took me to optical.toys. A website about optical illusions and brain bending toys. I like the Sam Loyd disappearing cyclist puzzle.

How many interesting things are hidden in plain sight or right around the corner or off the beaten path. How many interesting things are just waiting to be discovered. I am thinking that I should be more curious and more open to new experiences. Serendipity is when happy accidents or coincidences lead to something good. It's like the universe is giving you a gift.

I found a short talk by John Hagel on inviting serendipity into your life. He talked about sharing our problems which had me thinking about my last blog post about our biggest problems. Our biggest problems are really made up of a bunch of smaller problems. When we share our problems, we increase the chances of finding solutions. Sharing problems can help us to build relationships with others. Working together to solve our problems is about building relationships.

I dont know how to end this blog post. I started thinking and Googling and just free flowing. Then I thought let me count how many words I have so far. I got 323 words. 32 is 23 backwards and 23 is my favorite number. I decided to Google "323 serendipity". I found a Beneteau Oceanis 323 yacht called Serendipity in Barcelona. This reminded me of the chapter in my book - art peace - that had a drawing that included a yacht (sailboat). This lead me to asking Bard the following question: What is the link between serendipity and peace and solving the worlds biggest problems?

I was then lead to this quote by Nancy Thayer that I like, "The universe is always speaking to us... sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop, to look around, to believe in something else, something more."

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