Leaving Room for Serendipity
Are you a life planner or do you just take things as they come?
I was watching an interview about a man that lived an extraordinary life by dedicating himself to learning and intentionally planning his entire life. His dedication to the student mindset — remaining curious about things and open to growth — was inspiring. I was also intrigued by his thoroughness. He said he planned out every specific detail in his life and in many ways, those details had work themselves out, whether through hard work or the right relationships or luck or whatever. Clearly, the guy was vibing.
I was just about ready to start my stalker engine and research exactly how he planned his life with all the technical details around making what sounded like a personal life bible. Like, he preplanned the story that he wanted to live.
He wrote his story and then he lived it. Fascinating.
I don’t think there is any wrong way to live your life, but there was something about this approach that personally felt unflavored. Intense planning seemed like a way to be skimpy on the flavors of life.
Actually, I think there is magic in the unknown. There is magic in the unplanned.
I think one of the most magical things about life is when you ask for something and let it breathe so that it can be brought to you. I feel like sometimes, we can be so bogged down by our routines and schedules and plans that we brush off the magic of life.
Sometimes I intentionally leave room for serendipity without even realizing. I leave the house and simply wander. I say to myself, I will find a gem today or maybe I won’t. And then I simply walk without directions, with no particular place in mind, just knowing that I’ll know when I get there that it’s where I wanted to be.
For instance, one time I was traveling in El Salvador. I didn’t make any serious travel plans or anything for excursions. I was just happy to walk around and experience whatever corners I saw. One morning, I had put on a dress. I told myself, “I feel like dancing today. I want to dance.”
Now I was absolutely not in any kind of mood or mindset to go clubbing in El Salvador. So I’d let the thought pass. Anyway, I went to a cafe and then I went searching for street made pupusas because I was definitely not leaving El Salvador without an authentic pupusa.
I wandered around and found an outdoor market near a central square. There were a bunch of tables lined up selling clothes, food, and all kinds of knick knacks.
I saw a pupusa stand, but I realized that I’d forgotten to find an ATM to withdraw cash. The woman running the pupusa stand looked like the real deal — she looked liked she’d been slinging pupusas for a long time. I didn’t want to leave her stand to search for an atm; she realized that I only had a few coins in my pocket. She looked at my coins and gave me a bag of pupusas. She seemed unbothered. Little did I know I was about to be in pupusa heaven.
I started walking again, now munching on my pupusas and turning corners with no particular desire in mind. Then I spotted it — a square full of people dancing. The energy was like nothing I’d stumbled upon before. It was an event with live music playing around a group of senior ladies that did not realize they were senior ladies.
They were grooving. They were shaking. They were smiling.
They were also inviting spectators to join, but it looked like the crowd was just too shy.
I stood on a bench to see beyond the crowd of people recording the dancers. I was enjoying my pupusas and the music when one of the dancers pointed at me. She spotted me. Maybe it was my hair or sunglasses. I dunno.
She looked like she gave no fucks. She was wearing a tutu with trumpets blasting in the background.
She left the circle, came up to me, took my arm (even though it existed with a pupusa at the end of it), took me to the circle, and started clapping. It was the funniest thing. I remembered I had said that I wanted to dance. I just didn’t fathom it would look like dancing in a square with high vibing seniors who moved like they were in their twenties.
I was not about to say no to these ladies!
I started getting down and jamming with them. I don’t know what dances we were doing. It didn’t even matter. I was having so much fun dancing with them.
Had I planned out my day, I don’t know if I would have arrived there. I certainly would have never googled: “dancing in the square El Salvador”. I usually just search for coffee shops and museums.
I think when you leave room for serendipity, no matter how big or small, it will find you in the most heart fulfilling ways.
