Figuratively or literally, have you ever smacked into something when you weren’t looking? 

Funny how that happens sometimes. 

A friend and I have a word we jokingly use to describe our friendship: stumble. She stumbled into my life and I stumbled into hers.

According to definition #4a on Merriam-Webster online dictionary, stumble means “to come unexpectedly or by chance.”

Now, do I truly believe my path crossed with hers at that particular moment by chance? Not really. We had been acquaintances for nearly a year. 

To me, “stumbling” is simply Fate walking into the room and setting a suitcase down. 

I have a theory that the Universe gives us what or who we need when we need it/them, even if we don’t know we need them. Gifts.  

Not all the time, of course. Even though that sounds tempting, getting what we think we need all the time probably wouldn’t be all that great. I’d imagine that’d make our journeys way too easy and probably a bit boring. 

Sometimes Fate’s suitcase shows up when sorrow has been relentlessly pounding at the door. The gift tucked under the socks and pajamas may be a card in the mailbox among a pile of bills or the doorbell ringing and a friend who had no idea what to do, shows up with a meal and a listening ear. 

Other times, Fate’s suitcase appears when life is absolutely normal. Gifts in those moments may actually be missed because they look like common occasions. Packed beneath the toothbrush could be those instances like thinking we are all out of our favorite food, then finding an extra bag of it in the bottom of the freezer, or instead of gas prices dropping the day after we get gas, it drops when we pull into the station.

Once in a while, Fate’s suitcase sneaks in when things are a little off, but nothing is terribly wrong. Between the jeans and t-shirts may lie the gifts of opening a birthday card and seeing $20 fall out, getting a phone call from someone who rarely calls and it’s NOT bad news, or calling a company when money is a little short and finding out they’ll extend your bill. 

I’m pretty thankful that the Universe sort of throws things into our paths.

Seems like the most amazing things happen when we’re looking one way and turn our head back around and looky there! Something we weren’t expecting to see. 

The beauty in that, is the grace of receiving, simply because we stumbled.