Seeds in the Wind -- Fate vs. Chance

Some palm readers believe that one’s future should be read from the lines of the right hand, as opposed to those in the left which are, they say, the lines of birth – the original blueprint of our destiny that was drawn prior to our arrival on earth. According to that theory, we are provided with two maps: one which reflects the plan we made before being born, and one – the right hand - which reflects the choices we will make during our journey. We meet different people, enter new doors and close others; are the events we live from day to day coincidental? Or are they points already charted on the map of our existence?

In my opinion, there is no such thing as coincidence; I believe we are born with a precise path to follow, which allows for slight revisions as we walk through life. We are taught that humans have a gift of free will, but do we really?

If one considers the concept of time - and truly ponders on it – will realize that there is no such thing; time is merely a manmade illusion born out of sheer need to organize our existence through our limited five senses. Time is needed by our ego - which is born from our earthly body - but serves no purpose to our spirit, which is connected in nature to universal energy and is, therefore, timeless, ageless, birthless and deathless. Past, present and future are one, and are only separated by the need the human mind has to be in charge and control unfolding events. According to this theory – if time is simply an illusion – things which are to unfold tomorrow already happened yesterday; we just have not reached them today. Many of the stars which shine brightly in our skies today have likely been dead for hundreds of thousands of years; their distance is just so great, that their light took that long to reach us and become visible to us.

Universal perfection does not allow for mistakes; we are born to the family which will create the perfect environment for the growth of our spirit, and meet countless people and situations which will support the lessons we need to learn. That said, the journey our soul chooses to embark on can sometimes be a bumpy ride, and it will take the strength of our spirit to understand the necessity of each experience and roll with the punches. We may be born to abusive parents, meet people who only seem to create obstacles, run into predicaments which will test the strength of our resolve; yet, when all is said and done, each of those situations will have taught us something, and our test truly is one of understanding the greater, unexplained importance of each occurrence.

We are the seed the wind of destiny is blowing around. We may land on fertile ground right away, or we may be deposited on barren environs for a while, waiting out our turn to be swept again toward greener grounds; or maybe we will die there, as our charted mission is that of drying in the sun and support the hungry bird who’s looking for nourishment to perpetuate its own soul agenda. Whether our goal is that of taking center stage or merely operating the curtain ropes, our stay on earth – and that of other living beings - are all equally important, and have great value in the greater scheme of things. We are all but a drop in the vast waters of the ocean, but all together we create something powerful and beautiful, which will carry on the timeless tune of creation.

An Unexpected Treat

It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends.” ~ Author unknown


Two years ago, while I was looking for a literary agent, I set up profiles on every site that could help me get in touch with the right representative; along with the benefits of exposure, also came the less appreciated, infamous e-mails from the sites which regularly clog my inbox.

One morning, about a year or so ago, I received yet another notification of a new member signing up. Instead than deleting the message on sight - as I habitually did after I no longer needed to find an agent - that morning I felt compelled to click on the link. When the page opened, I stared at four profiles: two poets, an agent whose niche was young adult fiction, and a novelist, Renee Otis. Renee had opened a profile to either get the attention of an agent or to get suggestions from fellow writers. On her profile was a short synopsis of her novel – slave ghosts, ancient traditions, a psychic nurse, a comatose man who mentally communicated with her; in short, her novel had all the ingredients for a good story – so I wrote to her, and we began exchanging thoughts. In time, she sent me her novel to read and comment on, and I loved it! As fate had it, she soon signed up with one of my friends who had gone on to open a literary agency of her own after working as an agent assistant for a while.

The day before yesterday I had a surprise. I checked my messages and read that Renee had sent me a note on Facebook; she was coming to Raleigh for a week of training and wanted to know if we could meet. Initially, she was supposed to go to Philadelphia, but at the last minute the schedule had changed and she was sent to North Carolina.

I was very excited to meet her in person; over time we had virtually shared hopes, dreams and fears, and now we had the chance to meet face to face. We decided to meet at the hotel she stayed at, and spent a wonderful hour and a half talking over a glass of wine. If someone there was listening to us, they would have thought we had always known each other – we talked about our current projects and about the woes and wows of the publishing world, but our conversation derailed several times to other topics, and it was absolutely amazing to see how two perfect strangers who had never before met in person could be so instantly connected and comfortable with one another.

Since we both had to be up early I didn’t stay long, but we made plans to possibly get together again before she leaves town. As I drove home I thought of how strange life is sometimes, and how wonderful. If I hadn’t clicked on that link the year before, I never would have known Renee exists – though I am sure I would have discovered her later on once her amazing novel makes it to the printer – and if her company hadn’t switched schedules, it would have likely been years before we met, if indeed we were meant to meet at all.

Each day has the potential of revealing surprises that might not always be welcome, but it also reserves the right to treat us with unexpected blessings when we least expect them; the trick, I suppose, is to remain open to all we can receive.

In this case, I was blessed with the opportunity to meet someone extremely talented, with whom I share many of the same interests, whose name I will see listed some day on the New York Times list of best-selling novelists. For now, I am just happy that a link on a message led me to someone so dear.

One Reason to Believe in Yourself

“Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.” ~ Robert Anthony


As I drove home from my monthly writers’ meeting, last night, I reflected upon the many opportunities I have had this past year to grow and expand my passion for writing.

It was only three years ago, that writing professionally was nothing more than a far-away dream, a distant star I could watch and wish upon but not quite hold. On a very early morning on July 2006, I woke up with a handful of words in my head; as I went about my daily routines they continued to nag at me until I picked up pen and paper and wrote them down. That night, after the kids went to bed, I transferred that first sentence to a notebook.

Those few words spun more, until the story began to take a life of its own. When I finally finished the first draft, about a month later, I was thrilled that I had finally been able to write a full-length novel, but I thought it was going to age inside a drawer. I let a couple of my closest friends read it and they all seem to like the story line, so I gathered more confidence and showed it to a few more people. Finally, one day, someone asked me if I was going to try to get it published. Instantly I began to formulate in my mind all the reasons it wouldn’t go anywhere. My friend looked at me and asked: “Now that you’ve come up with all the reason it couldn’t make it, can you think of a few why it could?”

I thought about it for a moment, and the only thing that came to mind was that it was a unique story which didn’t really fit any specific genre. “There,” my friend said, “it’s something new and refreshing. It could make it just because of that.” I chewed those words around for a couple of days, and with each passing moment I began to feel that there was no harm in trying, so I decided to give it a shot.

Months continued to pass, and rejections kept piling up; many times I felt like giving up, but every time I got really fed up, something or someone would come along and encourage me to keep trying. In time, I signed up with a literary agent and the book – along with another one she had asked me to write to set a platform – sold to a publisher. What attracted the publisher to it was the very same reason I thought of when my friend asked three years before – the story was different than many already on the market and belonged to a category of its own.

What started as a hobby turned into the incarnation of a life-long passion, only because the focus was shifted from what couldn’t work to what probably could. The rest was a wonderful and unexpected journey.

If I had listened to the thousand-and-one reasons my mind had come up with as a shield to protect me from possible failure, I would still be staring at my wishing star from the window of an unfulfilled dream.

So, no matter how arduous your dream is, if you can think it you can reach it. Believe in yourself.

Seeds Swept in the Wind: Fate vs. Chance

Some palm readers believe that one’s future should be read from the lines of the right hand, as opposed to those in the left which are, they say, the lines of birth – the original blueprint of our destiny that was drawn prior to our arrival on earth. According to that theory, we are provided with two maps: one which reflects the plan we made before being born, and one – the right hand - which reflects the choices we will make during our journey.
At any given moment in our lives we are subject to meeting new people, entering new doors and closing others; are the events we live from day to day coincidental? Or are they points already charted on the map of our existence?
In my opinion, there is no such thing as coincidence; I believe we are born with a precise path to follow, which allows for slight revisions as we walk through life.
We are taught that humans have a gift of free will, but do we really?
If one considers the concept of time - and truly ponders on it – will realize that there is no such thing; time is merely a manmade illusion born out of sheer need to organize our existence through our limited five senses. Time is needed by our ego - which is born from our earthly body - but serves no purpose to our spirit, which is connected in nature to universal energy and is, therefore, timeless, ageless, birthless and deathless. Past, present and future are one, and are only separated by the need the human mind has to be in charge and control unfolding events.
According to this theory – if time is simply an illusion – things which are to unfold tomorrow already happened yesterday; we just have not reached them today. Many of the stars which shine brightly in our skies today have likely been dead for hundreds of thousands of years; their distance is just so great, that their light took that long to reach us and become visible to us.
Universal perfection does not allow for mistakes; we are born to the family which will create the perfect environment for the growth of our spirit, and meet countless people and situations which will support the lessons we need to learn. That said, the journey our soul chooses to embark on can sometimes be a bumpy ride, and it will take the strength of our spirit to understand the necessity of each experience and roll with the punches. We may be born to abusive parents, meet people who only seem to create obstacles, run into predicaments which will test the strength of our resolve; yet, when all is said and done, each of those situations will have taught us something, and our test truly is one of understanding the greater, unexplained importance of each occurrence.
We are the seed the wind of destiny is blowing around. We may land on fertile ground right away, or we may be deposited on barren environs for a while, waiting out our turn to be swept again toward greener grounds; or maybe we will die there, as our charted mission is that of drying in the sun and support the hungry bird who’s looking for nourishment to perpetuate its own soul agenda.
Whether our goal is that of taking center stage or merely operating the curtain ropes, our stay on earth – and that of other living beings - are all equally important, and have great value in the greater scheme of things. We are all but a drop in the vast waters of the ocean, but all together we create something powerful and beautiful, which will carry the tune of creation, and lead us harmoniously in a timeless dance of soul unity and life’s true purpose.

The Friends We Haven't Met Yet

It is strange how people walk in our lives, sometimes.
When I met my friend Connie, two years ago, I was rushing through errands and had stopped by to see my husband at work. As I waited for him to deal with the customers in the store, I sat in one of the chairs in the waiting area and picked up a magazine, while Morgan, my daughter, was playing with a toy another kid had left behind.
I nonchalantly turned to look when I heard the door chime, and saw a young lady walking in with a little girl in tow. She waited patiently in line and, when her turn came, she asked for directions. She was new in town, having just moved here from Kansas, and was miserably lost.
Meanwhile, her daughter and mine had already connected, and were chasing each other around the chips rack, giggling.
When I heard that my husband was not familiar with the road the young lady was inquiring about, I intervened and started talking to her. I gave her directions, she thanked me and was ready to go, but her little girl had different plans. She and Morgan – after a whole five minutes – acted as lifetime friends, and neither of us had the heart to separate them that fast.
Since the crowd of customers had, by then, considerably thinned, we sat in the waiting area talking, hoping to give the girls a few extra moments. It was obvious that they enjoyed playing together, so we exchanged phone numbers, and agreed that we should meet again at a park.The rest is history. Morgan and Brooklyn are now inseparable, and so are Connie and I. We are so in tune, that sometimes we finish each other’s sentences. There is nothing in the world we feel we can’t share. Since I don’t stop by my husband’s business very often, it seemed like a gift from destiny that I would be there the same day that she had gotten lost.
Whenever we get out in the world, we never know what doors we’ll be walking through that day. Some are challenging, while some others are blessings that will stay with us for life.
Yesterday, my daughter was watching a Barbie movie, and I heard one of the characters say that strangers are the friends we haven’t met yet. Although it was one of those clichés you often hear in children’s movies, it really made me think.
Every person we meet has the potential to become very important in our lives; we just have to remain open to the possibilities and the blessings each encounter might bring.
In my case, I guess I was very lucky, as the stranger I met that day turned out to be my very best friend.