Serendipity – by @womenandbiz

Tags

connection, serendipity, spirituality

The Spirit of Serendipity

This week’s topic of #SpiritChat is Serendipity. I’ve been considering what is the connection between serendipity and awareness, serendipity and alignment with our souls, serendipity and growth, serendipity and self-love, for a while. And I wanted to share a personal multi-layer serendipitous journey that became possible thanks to SpiritChat, and all the other aforementioned “ingredients”.

I have been a participant of #SpiritChat Twitter chat on Sundays, created and hosted by Kumud Ajmani, @AjmaniK, since 2011. That same year, Jennifer Rowley, @liberateforlife, one of the chat’s participants, noticed that we were both living in NY at the time, and suggested we met for coffee. We did and have been dear friends since. You can learn more about Jenn’s work at http://www.fab55.com/.

A couple of years later, she introduced me to her sister Lara Simmons, @be_and_become, who lives in Seattle. Although Lara and I had never met in person, we became accountability partners, friends, and have been connecting every Friday for the past four years. Lara has published two inspiring books since, you can learn more at http://www.larasimmons.net/.

Last August, Lara mentioned that her husband Mark was coming to NY with his brother Pat, and she introduced us via text.I met them at a restaurant in NY, and a few days later, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge together. Since the first night, I noticed how kind hearted, open and wonderful they were, and wanted to stay in touch. Pat felt the same way and invited me for dinner the following week, and we connected. We have been together in a committed, long distance, relationship since then.

Both of us are grateful for the serendipitous way we met, and we are deeply happy together. I made it to Seattle in January, met Lara in person for the first time, and it was truly special.I also believe that there is much more than serendipity at play always. If Jenn hadn’t invited me for coffee, if I didn’t stay connected with Lara, if Pat, who didn’t know who I was, had decided to let only Mark meet me… If I hadn’t relentlessly kept practicing self-love (work in progress), and opening myself up for a loving relationship… If I hadn’t said yes, to myself and to Pat… If Kumud hadn’t created #Spiritchat… If I hadn’t found out about it… and the list goes on…

None of the incredible experiences we are having would have unfolded. Each are serendipitous moments that led to today.

This journey is only one of several wonderful relationships I have nurtured through #Spiritchat, and I’m grateful to Kumud and to all the weekly participants of the chat. What other serendipitous and ripple effects has the chat made possible, and could still create?

– Elisa Balabram (@womenandbiz)

Please join Elisa as she steps up to host our weekly #SpiritChat on Sunday, March 25th at 9amET, and share your stories about serendipity ~ I am sure that it is going to be a wonderful chat that will create many more possibilities… thank you!

On Spiritual Serendipity

Tags

grace, serendipity, spiritchat, spirituality

What is serendipity? This word has always intrigued me as it carries a sense of magic, a sense of discovery, a sense of finding something when one least expects it… According to Wikipedia,

Serendipity means a “fortunate happenstance” or “pleasant surprise”… in reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”.

When we are on the journey, for the joy of the journey, we often happen upon ‘things which we were not in quest of’, don’t we? We set out to ‘help’ someone and find that we end up helping ourselves as much, if not more, than we helped the other person. We set out to buy a ‘gift’ for someone, visit a bookstore to find something for them, and stumble upon a book that we needed to really read. We decide to mentor someone, with the intent of ‘giving back’ in our personal or professional lives, and discover the ‘sagacity of the young’. Can you think of a recent moment or occurrence of serendipity in your life, a ‘fortunate happenstance’ that changed the course of your spiritual practice?

For me, one such serendipity happened a few weeks back, in the course of my “Walk with Sheila”. I did not even know it at the time, but the guided nature walk with Sheila, planted a seed in my heart and consciousness, which led to multiple serendipities in the weeks to follow. A visit to the local library a week after the guided walk, led me to a tiny treasure of a book by Thich Nhat Hanh titled “How to Walk”. My seed intention of walking (as a spiritual practice) grew into a seedling as I drew inspiration from the truths and tools about walking expounded in this book.

The serendipities related to walking did not end there. The growth of the seedling intent to walk has taken flight in the most unexpected of ways. On my way to work one day, I realized that I literaly work nextdoor to, and often drive right by a parkway that has many miles of walking trails. Over the past three weeks, I have been exploring different sections of the parkway every single (working) day, walking its trails, following the bends of the river that flows within, discovering bridges, finding new rock for my daily meditations, and more. The trees and the flowers and the river seem to change character every single day, and every walk brings a wealth of serendipity. My biggest challenge is to absorb it all, as some days the inner container seems to overflow with the flood of nature’s bounty.

My practice and my intent continues to grow with every walk, and the serenedipitous experiences of joyous transcendence continue to grow within. Walking and sitting in mindfulness does take an investment of time, but the return on investment is difficult to wrap a metric around. Many of you who have experienced the joy of serendipity know what I am alluding to. My example of ‘walking’ is just a mere illustration of what lies in store for all of us when we conduct our spiritual walk with openness to receive and use the gifts that our serendipities bring to us to grow the seeds of greatness that we all carry within us.

For all of you who have read this far, I invite you to join us in our ‘community walk’ ~ Sunday September 13th at 9amET/1pmUTC/6:30pm India on twitter in #SpiritChat. Share your views us as we walk together to grow inner peace, and learn how we can invite serendipity into our lives with intention.

As always, I wish you all, the best that this moment has to offer,

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. I am researching the best platform to share some of the photos I am taking during my walks… suggestions welcome 🙂 stay tuned 🙂

Valley Parkway – A Lagoon after the Rain