10.11.2010

serendipity

Serendipity: discovery of something fortunate: the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful


It was a day this summer when I was feeling blue, unsure of myself, my inner critic being more of a chatterbox than ever. I was at a local coffeeshop, Olivia was at dance camp. This particular coffeeshop is my favorite place to write outside my home. (No, wait, I take that back, it ties with Mill Mtn. Coffee downtown. That place has good mojo too.) Words flow easy there so I was surprised to run up against such a different experience from the usual. At first I tried to ignore this loud-mouthed, nasty beastie and kept writing though after two hours the pencil wasn't much more than dead weight in my hand. I was working on a scene in TPS (a fiction novel I've been playing with for a while now), the scene where my MC (main character) hears the love interest play the fiddle for the first time. It's at a funeral, it's an important scene, and I wasn't capturing even a fraction of the feeling I needed. I told myself to keep going, cause you can fix bad, but you can't fix blank, right? But the more I wrote, the more discouraged I became. Now, that's not a typical reaction for me, I tend to stay fairly upbeat, but in that moment it was all there was. "Wow, this scene really stinks" snowballed into "wow, this entire project really stinks." Packing up my pencil and legal pad, I wondered if perhaps I shouldn't put the writing away for a while, a long while.

I was in the parking lot, beside my car, fumbling for the keys when I happened to look down and spot something shiny at my feet. Being the magpie that I am, I investigated. A necklace. And not just any necklace. A silver fiddle and bow. I went numb, my entire body frozen into one big goosebump, no more surprised than if a chunk of sky had fallen at my feet. Like the double rainbow guy, I wanted to shout, "What does this mean?"

Could it be coincidence? I really haven't tried to explain it to myself. That would take the magic away and I like this magic; this feeling of being watched over, guided. I read the serendipitous finding of the necklace as a sign to keep writing and since then, I've been writing every chance I can, which explains the long blog absenses.

Has something like this happened to you? I'd love to hear about it.

Blessings,

8 comments:

Sonia said...

I am SO happy you are posting this story. I got goosebumps the first time I heard it and now I have them again!!! Oh, the magic! Beautiful, wonderful, serendipitous magic!!!

Dreama Kattenbraker said...

Pure magic! Thank you for this reminder, Tricia--there really is something wonderful and serendipitous if we maintain our curiousity. xoxoox

Tiffany said...

Meeting you. Yes, I think that was magic. :)

triciascott said...

thank you so much, sonia! i thought i needed to set it down in words somewhere so i wouldn't forget. :)

triciascott said...

thank you dreama. :) i am happy that i haven't lost that curious side of my self and boy oh boy, i sure do love all of my many wonderful curious open-hearted friends!!! xoxo

triciascott said...

yep, that was magic! so glad livi and i went to the writing class that day!

Relyn said...

I love those bits of serendipity. And, thank goodness you haven't stopped writing.

triciascott said...

thank you for always having kind words and support! thank goodness for blogs and frienships near and far!!!! xoxo