What Happened to Me at the Intersection Called Serendipity

There are 7.4 billion people living on this rock we call Earth.

Sometimes we miss each other like ships floating through the harbor at night.
Walking by each other without so much as a glimpse.
A smile.
Or a friendly hello.

Not making eye contact as we walk past one another in an airport or drive past each other on the freeway. Never meeting or getting to know each other.

There are 7.4 billion people living on this rock we call Earth.
Separated by mileage. Divided by language and culture.

There are a lot of missed opportunities to meet new friends or to fall in love.
But in the blink of an eye, our lives can change.

These are the times in which the stars are in sync and the planets align.
We could crash into each other like snowflakes gently falling to Earth on a winter’s day.
That disorganized, unexpected, beautiful chaos.
Where we meet at the intersection of fate and destiny.

Serendipity I think it’s called.

A window opens for us to receive a stranger’s smile to brighten our day when we need it the most. Or a chance encounter with a kindred spirit to remind us that this world isn’t as big as we thought it was.

I had the most amazingly serendipitous thing happened to me earlier this summer.

I was in Las Vegas for the Electric Daisy Carnival, a three-day electronic music festival set in June. EDC is like a raver’s Super Bowl. EDC features every genre of electronic dance music you can think of. From trance to house to bass and everything in between. 400,000 of your closest friends together sharing peace.

EDC is a magical place where serendipity happens.

It was Tuesday morning, and I was flying back to Seattle. It was the ending of my first trip to EDC. Blessed to have shared my first EDC with some of my close friends from Seattle.

Killing a couple of hours before my flight, I sat down in a brewhouse pub and had some breakfast. I wasn’t initially going to eat at this place. I thought the menu at a restaurant down the aisle had a better selection, but I stayed at the brewhouse pub. For some weird reason, I had a gut feeling to eat there.

I met an amazing woman called Alanna.

We were sitting in the same restaurant at separate tables.
She was in the process of canceling her order because her phone battery died and she planned to use one of those pay charging station. In a pure moment of uncharacteristic confidence, I said I had a phone charger and she was more than welcomed to use it. I asked if she wanted to join me at the same table. She could have very easily said no and walked to the pay charging station or thought of me as a total creep and ran the hell away.

But she didn’t.
She said yes.

We had breakfast together and hung out for around an hour. Hour-and-a-half. Maybe more.

We talked about her current life living in Calgary and her past life living in Australia, our past loves, our fondness for travel, and our collective desperate need to live in warm climates.

At one point during the conversation she noticed the kandi bracelets I wore on my left wrist. Ravers wear and make and trade kandi bracelets made from colorful pony beads and charms and elastic string to trade at clubs, parties, and massives like EDC. She told me how much she liked the words on them. One read “Hope”, one read “PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect),” and the other was a gift from my friend Alexis that read “Love Yourself.”

At the end of breakfast, I gave her the hope kandi bracelet. Alanna smiled and said how awesome the kandi was. I wasn’t sure if offering a hug would be appropriate or crossing a personal space line, so we shook hands and parted ways. I’m honored to have met Alanna. I hope at some point that serendipity will see fit for Alanna and I to meet again.

It is said that serendipity works in the most mysterious ways.

Serendipity teaches us that we are truly one global community. We are all connected in some way. Alanna and I meeting each other, I believe, was no accident. There is a reason we met at this place at this time.

7.4 billion people living on this rock we call Earth.
More than 400,000 people attended the Electric Daisy Carnival in June 2016.

Sometimes we miss each other like ships floating through the harbor at night.
Walking by each other without so much as a glimpse.
A smile.
Or a friendly hello.

But on this day.
On a Tuesday morning.
In a chophouse brewery.
At McCarran International Airport.

Serendipity allows for two strangers such as Alanna and I to meet, have breakfast, and talk about life and love and dreams and hope.

These are the times in which the stars are in sync and the planets align.
We crashed into each other like snowflakes gently falling to Earth on a winter’s day.
This disorganized, unexpected, beautiful chaos.

I feel there is always a reason of some sort for all humans to meet each other.
There are no chance meetings.
Where we meet at the intersection of fate and destiny.
Serendipity I think it’s called.