(Part 28 of 37 in series, Study inspired by Pakour & Art du Déplacement by V. Thibault)
Serendipity.
I’ve been working on writing these thoughts for over three years. Without actually checking, I think it was the Fall of 2015 when I sat in Le Jardin Joan d’Arc and read my copy of Thibault’s book in one, all-day sitting. Almost 4 years ago?
I created this particular blank note for Chapter 16 in May of 2016. “16”?
As I’m writing, it is May of 2019. Another, “May”?
About three years ago I started the project which eventually became Movers Mindset. Two years ago the project grew to include a podcast.
This morning, I feel compelled to “finally” get around to writing something for Chapter 16. I open my digital copy, flip to Chapter 16, and I read, “Chris ‘Blane’ Rowat once wrote…”
Care to guess who I am interviewing for the podcast today? Yes, really.
This is sublime.
All those threads woven together lead to this moment of realization at 8:00 in a rented London flat, 6,000km from my home.
Critically, while I’ve known for months the exact date and time of Chris’ interview, I’ve not read Chapter 16 recently enough to have remembered that it starts with his sentiments. If I had, I’d certainly have made some complicated plan to co-publish this writing and the podcast, or something—but this serendipity would not have materialized. Energized by the jolt of adrenaline when I read Chapter 16 this morning, I now feel a renewed belief in the entire Movers Mindset project! (Which is good, because most days there’s more strenuous labor than love in the labor of love.)
But, serendipity and coincidence are bullshit.
It’s just my brain, (yours may be the same,) working its tremendous powers of pattern matching. This morning my mind found a slightly-more-interesting-than-usual pattern and screamed, (ala the old adrenal gland,) that it had found something that demanded much closer attention. I’ve been spurred to carefully read Chapter 16 about five times this morning, to mull over my thoughts, to spend an hour or so writing, and to think of all the people I want to share this story with. I was inspired to create a vision of how the interview will go, new questions have popped into my head, and I’ve thought of a specific person who I now realize I’d forgot for about two years!
I wonder: What would life be like if I simply paid closer attention?
What if—instead of needing a kick in the adrenals to be this motivated—I could begin to intentionally notice things a bit smaller than this morning’s coincidence?
What if!
…and of course, “don’t be that guy.”
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