It’s always been a fascination to me that even the simplest action can have unknowable and unpredictable consequences, as the ripples from an event eventually reach shores invisible to the naked eye. Wheels can be set in motion from the seemingly most minor of incidents. It’s fascinating – perhaps born of turning 50… – to look back and try to identify what those moments might have been in your own life. 

If I had never flicked through the Guardian jobs online over breakfast one Monday morning as a weekend away in Brighton drew to a close I would never have seen the job opening with the RSA – that closed at 5pm that day – and that I would eventually get. Some priming may have helped in the sense that the recruiter briefly – and quite improbably – also attended the same high school that I did. Without a great teacher of German I may never have got that third A-level grade necessary for me to get in to University. Without the auditor I met on a work placement advocating for me rather than the other candidates I may never have worked in Local Government. Without divorce I may never have never studied for a masters nor moved to London. 

Or would I? 

While some will speculate as to the paths not taken, the opportunities and life that might have evolved in different directions, I love the notion that things are evolving as they should, that these turn out to be exactly the right things to happen to us at the right time. 

Playing the victim in those situations where things have got tough and not worked out as we would have liked isn’t going to help us learn and grow from them, which I think is crucial and helps us continue to evolve our lives in a direction that, just perhaps, the spirit or the divine in the universe had in store for us all along. While western cultures have largely lost their profound connection with nature, cultures over the millennia have connected with the essence of the universe – Qi or Prana^⁠1 in some traditions – that animates all things. Native American^⁠2 philosophy expresses something similar though some core principles:

“All things are interrelated. Everything in the universe is part of a single whole. Everything is connected in some way to everything else. It is only possible to understand something if we understand how it is connected to everything else. 

The Physical World is real. The Spiritual World is real. They are two aspects of one reality. There are separate laws which govern each. Breaking of a spiritual principle will affect the physical world and visa versa. A balanced life is one that honors both.”

It’s hard to imagine my life without such fundamental experiences coming to pass and yet they were all serendipitous, coincidental, to a large extent out of my control, more an alignment of circumstances than carefully chosen steps on a predetermined path through life. Is this a case of ‘they were the only thing that could happen?’ A life animated by the unfolding of the universe?

Sure, I didn’t have to do German as one of my A-Levels and could have chosen a subject I found easier, and divorce is perhaps not the best route into study. I suppose part of the challenge is to always seek both the learning and the opportunity in the present, however difficult or comfortable our circumstances might be. Indeed, most of those experiences I treasure above others are a result of some form of pain or serious discomfort. It’s well noted that hard times can make people stronger. To do that requires growth, and learning that leads to growth is more likely to arise through pain and challenge and difficulty. 

¹ https://wefreespirits.com/qi-chi-vs-prana-vs-ki-life-force-energy/

² https://originalwisdom.forumotion.net/t3-twelve-principles-of-native-american-philosophy