Unexpected Sparks

"Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks."

-- Samuel Johnson

Thank God for serendipity! It's like the Universe winking at you. The unexpected spark ignites and you know that an intelligence greater than your own puny, little mind has a hand in how your life unfolds. Gladness, gratitude and awe ensue. Life is good.

Planning, executing and controlling are highly overrated! We can do our damndest to make things come out the way we'd like them to, and still we get very different results. Getting what you want is at best temporarily fulfilling. Accepting, and even cherishing, what life brings you, is a co-creative approach that is much more likely to produce long term peace of mind.

The problem, much of the time, is that the sparks are flying all around us, and we're too caught up in our own thoughts, our own plans, our own emotions to even see them. Opportunity doesn't knock but once -- it knocks all the time, but we're wearing our Ipods or talking on our cell phones, or we have the TV turned up too damn loud to hear it!

So, beginning today, be on Spark Patrol. Like Smokey the Bear, be on the lookout for sparks, hot spots and smoldering fire. But, unlike Smokey, don't extinguish them, fan the flames. Let the sparks of serendipity grow into conflagrations of joy, fed by your loving attention. And when they have burned their due course, you will know it, and the flames will die and other sparks will appear and life will continue to turn and churn and burn and you, in wide-eyed wonder, will love it all. Love It All.