I love that the word serendipity keeps coming up in my world, for one it’s fun to say, it’s positive and light and reminds me of the children’s series I used to read as a kid. But mostly I love the way it comes out of someone who is feeling bright and happy. Last week a girlfriend of mine used it to describe meeting a handsome stranger who it turns out she had met years before. Yesterday a friendly man that was shopping in the same aisle at Home Depot as my husband and I used it to describe our meeting.

Here’s one definition of serendipity: The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

So as the word was floating around in my mind, I casually used it in conversation with a friend and he quickly fired back with the Louis Pasteur quote, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

Hmmm…that got me thinking.

The first time my friend met her handsome stranger she was not at all open to a relationship, now years have passed, she’s figured out a lot about her self and life, and this time when he shows up she really sees him. The prepared mind.

We didn’t just happen into Home Depot. We were shopping for a minor kitchen remodel (big item on my Freedom List) when we ran into the friendly man who it turned out fixes up and then sells homes in our area. I had consulted with a designer, two contractors, and done research online and still he made great suggestions that would save us money overall and were in keeping with the style and era of our home. The prepared mind.

At first when my friend mentioned the quote, I wasn’t that happy about the whole prepared mind thing, I thought it made the whole idea of serendipity less fun. But then I started thinking I love it. It’s actually more fun. It makes me feel like doing more of the upfront work and worrying less about outcomes.

I know that if you start, if you just begin, you’ll get the information, meet the right person, be presented with the opportunity. Because it’s not just serendipity, or luck, or chance, or coincidence, it’s you making the movement in the direction that you want to go, and the universe rising up and saying yes, keep going, I’ve been waiting for you.