Getting Here

Last night my husband Tom and I went out to dinner. At some point he asked, “Do you ever wonder, ‘How did I get here?’” Although I hadn’t asked the question quite that way, I had been thinking about the circuitous route my life has taken. Two weeks ago we went on vacation with a dear college friend whom I met almost twenty-seven years ago on a bike trip. Then last week I was writing about my stint as a canvasser, which I was startled to realize began eighteen years ago. I found that job because a trip to the mountains with a high school friend hit bad weather, and we ended up inside a lodge reading the newspaper classifieds. I met my husband because of rain too, which taught me to never complain about the weather. I met another good friend because a sunny day put us in the same sandbox with our toddlers. If it hadn’t been for her, I would never have taught at LaSalle, which is what led to my teaching at UArts. I could go on naming turns in the road that came seemingly by accident, though when I probe those memories further I realize that each came in response to something I was hoping for—a friend, an activist job, a partner, a mother friend, and a way to make money that fit with motherhood. I’m still mulling the “law of attraction” concept, the idea that we attract people and events into our lives through our intentions. I’m still considering how that fits with the idea of a loving God who sometimes throws us curveballs.

I interviewed someone recently who said that thinking about predestination gave him a headache. My reaction is even more negative since I think assuming that God has our lives all planned out for us can keep us from doing things we ought to be doing ourselves. The interesting question for me is how much of our lives is shaped by our choices and how much by fate or chance. Would it change the way I lived if I thought it was one or the other? Either way, it seems my life has been a great adventure. I can’t wait to see what comes next.