71. Six degrees of separation

A long time ago, when D and I were just beginning the bead business, we had a table, an umbrella, a few shoeboxes of trinkets, and a gig at a market in Sydney's whoop whoop.  If I remember, it was raining, and cold and neither of us wanted to get out of bed that Sunday to drive an hour each way in the hope of making a few dollars.  But we did, and we did, and we did.  And we also met the man, BK, who was to turn our lives around .. and lead me, particularly to this path.  The story goes that he sauntered up to us, fingered our trinkets,  and asked what we were doing with such nice stuff at a place like this.  Would we like a shop? A shop? How? Where? Why? When?  Yes! I'll show you one! Here! Why not! Next week!  We took the shop and his very generous offer ... and the rest is history - and my story.  A few years later D and I were over living in whoop whoop and wanted to return to the bush and the beaches - I'd had such bad luck there. I'd smashed my nose when I walked into a glass door, I'd broken my wrist, I'd broken two toes, and a blonde was stalking D so much that I had to get a voodoo doll to giver her stomach aches every time she came near.  Did it work? Yes.  

We said goodbye to BK, and thanks for all the loaves and fishes and parties. We closed the shop, packed up our home and travelled around India for several months. When we returned, we moved back to the bush and the beaches and began our bead business with renewed vigor, and all was rosy in Stormland for years until much shi+t hit my fans. You've read all about it for months.   Then the Venice Happening.  A lifelong friend commented last week that my Venice Happening was similar to the life changing meeting with BK - a stranger walking into my life and offering a Chance. I agreed with her. And I gave a silent thanks to BK, although I hadn't been in contact with him for YEARS, for pushing me resoundingly on this path ... even though D is not part of it now.

So.  It was so cold this Sunday morning in Sydney, I dared not venture out for my attempted daily walk.  My phone rings.  Do you remember us? Of course. Instantly.  It's BK's wife G.  They're in the area - can they visit now?  

How amazing ... I hadn't thought about their role in the scheme of things since L mentioned it.  They arrived, I brought them up to date, a gallop around the twists and turns, the tunnels and hills, the floods and famines, the losses and prophets since we last talked.  The kids have left home, they are grandparents, their business interests are elsewhere, but life's still pretty okay. I wonder how I affected their lives? Not a corpuscle as much as they affected mine.   I'm astounded that they just reappeared in my life, in the short time I'm here - such important cogs in the early wheels of this incarnation. It was as if they were my guiding spirits, come to check on the progress of my journey.   I now feel I have achieved perfect closure on what led me here.  I have booked my ticket to Venice. My new life awaits.

So here - another thanks to BK for a chance meeting and a chance taken ...  and reinforcement that there really is a grand plan in our lives, and that no matter how convoluted the path ... there is meaning to the journey.  And when a stranger comes to your door, and says - here - take a chance on something different! - you'd be a fool not to. I've proved it every time.

You should try it sometime.