Pass It On

Last weekend we went to the art festival in our downtown. Lots of beautiful crafts, paintings, photography, wood turnings, etc. and music and food from everywhere around the world. It is always a good time and this year it was even better because for the first time since we moved here it wasn't a hundred degrees. This year it was overcast and cooler than years past and so we were able to walk around and breathe and not sweat. My husband ate food from Samoa, I ate Greek food and Little Man ate a hotdog. After lunch, and a little more walking around, we experienced potty training in a port-o-potty.

When we left, we strolled downtown and ducked into several antique stores. My husband was looking at the furniture for ideas and joinery techniques. I just browsed around looking at old books, and knick-knacks. In one of these stores, upstairs and tucked away into a back corner, I noticed several pillows. They had some wear and tear and needed a little love to restore them but even in their discarded state they were beautiful.

These pillows were needlepoint and embroidery. They were intricate, graceful, feminine, and meticulous. The number of hours it must have taken to embroider the small flowers makes me gasp. The even stitches that were patiently and lovingly laid with each pull of the thread. Even the design was unique, well, certainly nothing I've seen before.

I touched them and felt their delicateness. The still silky feel of the embroidery floss and the durability of the tapestry wool. The once vivid colors were fading and the seams were splitting in spots. There were stains of use and living. I found myself standing still and staring at them for a few minutes with thoughts and emotions racing through my mind.

Who had made these? Who were they made for? What happened to the creator and the owner? How many people had rested upon them? Questions with no answers. I was sad that these pillows, which represented care and love and talent and practice and patience and planning, had ended up in the dark, dusty corner of this antique store. No one to know their history and no one to carry it on.

I felt sad for these pillows, or rather for what they represented - lost history and perhaps the last in a family line. More so, I felt sad for those who gave them up. They have no appreciation for those that came before them. No knowledge of their history or care to look beyond their own world.

I have things like this that have been passed down in the family - furniture, needlepoint, lace, jewelry, books, etc. I love it. To me, these are the tangibles of our DNA. "Your great-great-grandperson made this." Well, they also made me. Isn't it a responsibility to pass these things, this history down to the next generation? What do you think?

What Is It?

Photo by David Castillo
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Ever been thinking about someone and suddenly they call? Or have you ever been somewhere you don't normally go and run into someone you haven't seen in a long time? It happens to me all the time. We call it coincidence or serendipity.

Paraphrasing my 1980 American Heritage Dictionary, coincidence is a series of events that appear to have a relationship and serendipity is the ability to make lucky discoveries. Personally, I believe that there's more Fate involved than events just appearing to be related or just luck. But then that's me. I prefer serendipity because it is active - you do something - whereas coincidence is passive - it happens to you. Serendipity is also more fun to say.

Recently, through coincidence, or serendipity, or fate, I have reconnected with an old friend, made a new friend and have met someone who volunteered to help me with editing my novel! Throughout my life coincidence, serendipity, or fate, has played a major role in bringing into my life wonderful people and experiences including my husband and if I go back far enough even the fact I exist is due to serendipity on my parents' parts. And that holds true for all of us.

William Shakespeare
www.biography.com

Authors use serendipity in their writing to move along their storyline. The detective who stumbles upon that important clue, the heroine who meets her knight in shining armor or her finds her perfect career or her magical gift. Shakespeare wrote an entire play using coincidence, A Comedy of Errors. Which you must see performed to appreciate the physical humor.

How has coincidence worked in your life to move your storyline? What do you believe? Is it Fate? Coincidence? Or Serendipity?