Serendipitous Sunday

Let me start with two quotes about SERENDIPITY which I found today, when searching for the proper meaning of the word ...

"Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for." -- Lawrence Block

"Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult." -- Erin McKean, 2007

{artwork above is "Trust" by Kelly Rae Roberts}

So pardoning Erin's language, I have to say, I have been trying to find some childhood friends for about a year now, the children of my mother's dear friend Elizabeth, who was my Godmother once my auntie opted out {don't ask!} ... these were kids I hung around with A WHOLE LOT growing up, and with whom I have many wonderful memories.

If you know me at all, you know that I had a shall we say "difficult" childhood? These family friends made it all tolerable. I am not exaggerating. I so looked forward to each & every visit with them, at their home in San Diego or ours in Del Mar, and when I lost touch with them {decades ago, now}, it was a sad time for me.

So what does all THAT have to do with Serendipity?

Yesterday I went to my friend Vickie's CAbi {women's clothing} party, in her home. I know Vickie through CCI, and we play Bunco together as well as living just 5 minutes apart. Our CAbi representative, Rebecca, was delightful -- as is the line of clothing that she represents {and that's ANOTHER story!} -- and there were some random comments throughout the party about my mother having been a 'fashionista', and that I had some vintage clothes from her that Vickie admires; and there was a comment about me being an interior designer {albeit "retired"}, etc.

There was a LOT of talk about style, of course; it was, after all, a CLOTHING party.

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. {The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company.}

For those of you that are good with languages: If you care to say this lovely word in French, it's sérendipicité or sérendipité but also heureux hasard, "fortunate chance". And in Italian, it's serendipità.

The word derives from Serendip, the old Persian name for Sri Lanka and was coined by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754 {wow, that's an old word!} in a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann (not the same man as the famed American educator), an Englishman then living in Florence.

{IF YOU CARE what that letter said, check it out on WIKIPEDIA, where I got all this info on SERENDIPITY ...}

SO back to my story.

I woke up this morning to find an e-mail from Rebecca, our CAbi gal, asking if my mother's name was Edith. {and you ALL know the answer to that is a resounding "YES"}. Rebecca had thought my name, Davi, was unusual; but it wasn't until she saw it written out in full as Davielle that it started to click ...

She recalled this woman Edith had a daughter Davielle, and that her mother was friends with Edith and that they (Rebecca's family) used to visit them in Del Mar, and that they were also frequent visitors to their home in San Diego.

Voila! I had just heard from the daughter of my godmother, Elizabeth, whose children I had been trying to find {via the occasional random internet search - with no luck whatsoever} for almost a year now.

Okay, sorry for the long blog post. But can you even believe this SERENDIPITOUS small world story? I mean, there I was, at Vickie's, LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE {as in, classic clothing pieces - I am my mother's daughter, after all - that won't go out of style and are of high quality with lots of style} and WHAT I FOUND ... was something far more precious than just that right piece for one's wardrobe.

I just know that Edith and Elizabeth are in Heaven tonight, smiling down on us, laughing at how we found each other despite my frustrated efforts to go it on my own.

The lesson for me? Sometimes - no, MOST times - one has only to TRUST in the angels and one will find their wishes being fulfilled. {today's art, by the way, is from artist Kelly Rae Roberts, who can be found at http://www.kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/ }

I have had goosebumps all day.

-- Davi