The Incredible Thread Of Life

This afternoon, I got to thinking about the thread of my life, those significant events that have led me to where I am now, to what I am doing, and who I have become.  It was my plan to sit down and create a list of the events that occurred, and by doing so, to illustrate how seemingly random life can be.  As I was running through some of these events in my mind, something quite remarkable occurred - I experienced an epiphany. 

You see, I had been imagining my chain of events as beginning when I had just turned nine years old.  This was the moment when my parents moved the family from our home just outside of London, down to the south coast of England.  Living by the ocean created my love of the beach and of being in and around water, and helped me to create the dream that I held, of one day spending my life on a palm tree lined beach.  An impossible and crazy notion, but one that was to take hold of my heart nonetheless.

So, beginning with this event, I started to think of others.  There are some that I knew were life changing events: giving up on my high school education so that I could work on a factory production line, going to South Africa for the first time, taking the opportunity to move to Budapest, quitting my job with IBM to go backpacking to Asia.  Some events may not have seemed significant at the time that they occurred, but they were the trigger for a change in my thinking about life: being handed a copy of The Alchemist by a friend, talking about life with Sergio, meeting up again with an old colleague after fourteen years and hearing of his life as a scuba instructor in Thailand.  As I went over these events, I thought about my life when I was working at IBM, and how that had been so significant for my story, how working there had provided me with the very opportunities that were to shape my thinking.  And this was the moment when I was struck by a sudden thought: why was it that I was working at IBM in the first place? 

The answer is because of my father.  My father is a great man.  He is my hero and I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed an affinity with him.  Growing up, I guess that I wanted to be like him.  I used to watch him getting ready for work each morning, putting on his suit and clipping his security clearance badge to his trouser belt.  He used to bring home punch cards and computer paper, copies of computer printed pictures and I used to think how cool he was to work at such an amazing and mysterious place called IBM.  Some weekends, if he had to go in to the office, I would accompany him, sitting and listening to the football on the radio, keeping him updated with the scores, watching what he was doing.  I knew that this was the place that I wanted to work, that I had to work.  It became my dream to work for IBM, to emulate my father, and to give us one more thing in common.

So here's what I realised.  If my father had not worked at IBM, my life would probably have turned out very differently.  Perhaps I would have worked there anyway, but I don't think so.  You see, my family moved to the seaside because of my father's work.  If he had not worked for IBM, then this would never have occurred and I would never have developed my love of the ocean, which in turn would mean that I would never have developed my dream of one day having my home on a tropical beach paradise.  My first significant event was not that we moved home when I was nine years old, it was in fact my father commencing work for IBM back in the late 1960's.  My first significant event occurred before I was even born.

Of course, it is now clear to see how all of the lives that came before us, generation through generation, all the way back to the very beginning of life on this planet, have played some vital role in my own life and my own course of events.  The chain of events that shape our lives can be traced all the way back to the dawning of time itself, to the moment of creation.  Every thing that we do changes the future, not only our future, but the futures of every one affected by the ripples that spread out through time and space.  Everything and everyone is interconnected.  All of the threads of lives intertwine to create the great tapestry of life. 

When I stop and think of how it was that I arrived at IBM, how it was necessary for my girlfriend at the time to be made redundant; how I accompanied her to a job fair at a local hotel; where, feeling bored, I decided on a whim to complete an application form for an employment agency; how that agency contacted me two months later to say there was an opening at IBM for which they thought I would be perfect; how the set of skills that I had acquired since beginning my working life had made me the right fit for the role...  It really is incredible.

Is it fate?  Perhaps.  Maybe my life was always going to be this way.  Perhaps all of these events were preordained, necessary to help create the big picture, vital to some future design.  All I know is that each individual link in the chain of events that have brought me to this moment, is a miracle.  Every thing, every person, every experience has in some way linked together and those links are being formed ahead of me, in my future.  I cannot see them, but what I do know is that when I look back from some moment that lies ahead of me, I will again be amazed at the incredible serendipity that has been my journey.

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Echoes Through Eternity

In life, it is the grand gestures, the remarkable experiences, the amazing sights and sounds, and the deepest sensations, that strike us the most and are the moments that burn themselves into our minds, to become memories to be lived again, and stories to be shared.  At these times, we know that perhaps something significant occurred: the realisation or the awakening of a dream, that a shift in the direction of the path took place, a heart opened to possibility and joy of new love, or was crushed and receded in pain at the loss of an old love.  It is to these moments that we pay closest attention, looking for significance in them, seeking out their meaning and in so doing, we forget that life does not only consist of these grand moments, life, and the path on which we all walk, is made of an endless myriad of moments that are so small and seemingly ordinary, that we attach no significance to their existence.  Perhaps we do so to our detriment and peril.

Think of a drop of water.  One single drop is powerless, insignificant, it can do nothing.  Imagine the rain beginning to fall on to the side of a mountain and that first single drop that falls.  As the rain begins, other single drops hit the ground and in the beginning, nothing happens.  As other drops fall, they begin to join with the ones that fell before them and soon, a trickle of water begins. The drops keep falling, adding to the trickle that becomes a stream and the stream runs down the mountainside.  The stream begins to act on small stones and rocks, pulling them along in its water, and imperceptibly, the mountain is changed.  The rain continues and more drops fall. The stream meets another and they combine their strength, together they charge down the mountain, and at its head, our first drop of rain leads the charge. Now, larger rocks are caught in the torrent and they tumble down the mountainside.  Water flows on rock, rock hits rock, changes are made.  This torrent eventually finds a river and the river seeks out its true destiny and joins with the ocean.  One day, a huge wind blows and pushes the water in its wake, generating huge swells that become storm breakers, that crash against the shore, that smash against the land, and that alter the landscape forever.  And as the largest wave gallops in, its white waters foaming and broiling before it, that first little drop of rain that fell from the sky onto the mountainside, rides at its head and leads the charge.       

Life is like this.  Every moment of our lives has the power to echo through eternity and to alter the course of the future.  These echoes affect not only our own future, but also the futures of others, those that already exist and those that are yet to come.  I began to think on this, after a friend of mine performed an incredibly selfless and genuine act of kindness to another person.  In that moment, I could see how the lives of both people had changed significantly.  Through this deed, the courage to continue along the true path might have been gained for one of them, perhaps even, this was an act that saved a life.  The truth is, we will never know.  But what this act was, was an amazing act of kindness from one who is seeking their true path, to another who was already walking their true path, and walking that path in the face of great adversity.  The spirit in one, recognised the spirit in the other, and life brought them together.  This act is going to echo through eternity.  My friend altered the course of history, my friend changed the world with her kindness.  More than this, by acting in this way, my friend also reaffirmed her own path.  She acted because her heart told her so.  The courage of one, was met with the courage of the other, who walked across a crowded room, and in so doing, changed the course of the future.

A small, seemingly insignificant event, one tiny drop in the ocean.  And one day, that single drop will ride at the front of the charge, and the pages of history will recall its name.      

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