Always Live in the Present/Presence/Pre-sent/Presents (Gifts).....
“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven…”
Henry David Thoreau. “Spring,” Walden (1854)
“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven…”
Henry David Thoreau. “Spring,” Walden (1854)
The word “serendipity” was coined by British author Horace Walpole in 1754, in a letter he wrote to his friend, Horace Mann, the English resident in Florence. Serendip was the former name of Sri Lanka.
“I once read a silly fairy tale, called ”The Three Princes of Serendip”: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right”. Now do you understand ‘’serendipity”? One of the most remarkable instances of this ”accidental sagacity” (for you must observe that ”no” discovery of a thing you ”are” looking for, comes under this description) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who happening to dine at Lord Chancellor Clarendon’s, found out the marriage of the Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her mother treated her at table.” as given by W.S. Lewis, ed., ”Horace Walpole’s Correspondence”, Yale edition, in the book by Theodore G. Remer, Ed.: ”Serendipity and the Three Princes, from the Peregrinaggio of 1557, Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by Theodore G. Remer, Preface by W.S. Lewis”. University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. LCC 65-10112.
“Serendipity” is a difficult word to grasp, especially as associated with “accidental sagacity.” Perhaps the following exercise may aid in understanding its true meaning.
Take out a piece of paper and write down everything you noticed on your way to work or school this morning, not what you know from long-term memory is along your route, but what you actually saw today. Or heard or smelled or tasted. Would you have much to write?
So, the kind of sagacity or wisdom that contributes to serendipity is the kind that comes from paying attention. An oblivious person doesn’t notice serendipity.
Serendipity also obliges us to have some purpose we care about, some good intention, or to have a dream or a hope, not for material goods beyond the necessities, but for a purpose more intrinsic to our well-being than acquisitions.
If we live to work, work, work, or if all we are seeking is to make it through the day, and through the week to pay-day and then to the gym and to shop til we drop, after which we pick up fast-food, fast-carry, fast-serve, fast-eat supper which we eat in front of the TV, it seems unlikely that anything more meaningful than “happy accidents” will come our way.
So, strive to be aware and alert to all the unfolding wonder around you each and every day. Make the search for serendipity part of your life journey each and every day. You will be rewarded with a simpler, happier life.
