SMALL TOWN THERAPIST ON CHANCE ENCOUNERTS

Spring flowers on Mt. Young

 It seems that sometimes serendipity is floating in the air. It's hard to prove this phenomena and yet I try. Some scoff (behind my back) and some just look at me curiously. But here's a few examples of recent little surprises that have delighted me.

My husband and I went for a walk up Mt. Young and when we got to the top along came a party of 10 hikers. My husband heard and noticed that one of the young women in the group had a pronounced brogue. He asked her where she was from. "I'm from Ireland, as is my sister over there." "That's so nice that you've arrived on this lovely spring day." I said. They told us, "We were in Vancouver for a half marathon," she explained, "and we decided to come to the states and see your beautiful island." Then she mentioned, "The rest of us are from Australia and England."  We chatted for a while and then the woman with the lovely brogue noticed that my husband's T shirt had a logo on the front from Lahinch Surf Shop. She exclaimed, "Where did you get that shirt?" and my husband said, "This was my good friend Brad's shirt, he bought it in Ireland when he and his wife traveled there many years ago. His wife gave away, at Brad's memorial, all the many shirts Brad collected from their travels."  Another woman said, "I know that shop it's on the west side of Ireland near where I live!" He then turned around to show the back of the shirt with a huge logo of Lahinch Surf Shop. They proceeded to take pictures of the back of his shirt. We all laughed at the coincidence and then we talked about Ireland and added that my husband's grandfather was born there as was my grandmother, Gertrude Byrne. One of the young woman in the group said that Byrne was her last name. I said, "You never know, we could be relatives, ha." We then told them where some of the bright spots were on our island and pointed the way to a good restaurant that they might enjoy. We left and went down to our car. I positively glowed with appreciation of the tiny special things that can happen in an ordinary day in May.

Interestingly, a couple of years ago--- in that exact same spot, we had a similar occurrence. We hiked, with my brother and sister-in-law Jim and Colleen, up to the top of Mt. Young.  We were telling them, how one of the men on the island, who is in his 90's, hikes up there every day. That amazed them, but nothing compared to what came next. Up walked the nonagenarian who we were just talking about!  He pleasantly greeted us and by the way, he was not out of breath. We introduced our travelers from Vermont and our friend said, "Oh, I lived in Vermont many years ago." They exchanged pleasantries about that beautiful state when he added, "I started the Killington Ski Resort." It just so happens that our nephew lives several miles from that ski resort and skis there all the time. It was kind of jaw dropping experience and again, a delight.

The last little tale happened a couple of weeks ago. I'd been working on a booklet for our grandson which I filled with stories from his birth to his soon to be graduation. I went to the marvelous printshop on the island to pick the booklet up which now had been bound, at long last. It was months in the creating and rendering and I was quite pleased with all of the pictures that I'd found to accompany the text. (It pays to keep journals!) I was walking out of the printshop, 

Silas and Lulu at Train Town

with the results of my efforts, so pleased and smiling with the little booklet in my hand. Then I got a call on my phone, it was the soon to be graduate, Silas.  What's interesting is that, to my knowledge, Silas had never called me before. We'd talked via FaceTime many times but the calls were always initiated by us. I was thrilled about the timing and answered enthusiastically. "Silas! What an incredible coincidence! I just finished picking up something I wrote for you..." "Yeah, yeah," he said, "I just need your address to send you a graduation announcement." He was so unimpressed by the marvelous timing and serendipity of the call. I am still tickled by him and his casual response.  We did manage to have a nice talk about his life at school, who he was dating and his classes.

I guess what I'd like to underline with an exclamation point is that life can surprise you, delight you and leave you hugging yourself with the chance encounters.

Be aware and amused at all times, it brings sparks of joy to unusual encounters.

Twins visiting: surprise!

susansmagicfeather 2026 Susan R. Grout