Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”   – Gilda Radner

When I sit and think about all of the coincidences and chance acquaintances that had to happen for me to be here now, loving my new life in the foothills of southern Colorado, it fascinates me. Life is rich and so complex!

My brother John has been visiting again, which only reminds me of where I came from decades ago, and the lost years of junior high and high school. In my teens I was such a lost soul, walking around without a clue of what I needed to do with this great opportunity called life. One coincidence that changed everything for me was a chance opportunity to live in Bangkok for a few months after high school. I had just started college, but felt no real career direction until I went to live in Asia. Shock and awe is an excellent way of describing what I found there. I thought, how could this whole part of the world be here, and I had no idea of its existence?

The fascination that developed from that brief stay dominated the rest of  my 20s. I studied Asian history, learned Chinese, lived in Taiwan and traveled in China a few times. Asia captivated my imagination, only because my Dad’s sabbatical included a trip for any of his kids under the age of 20 to accompany him.

When I look over each decade of my life, I can find at least one life-changing unpredictable event which somehow changed everything in my future.

Go take a look at your own life. Do you have unpredictables there that changed everything for you? German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said that it is only while looking back over your life that you may see that it all somehow makes sense.

One of the most unpredictable was our decision to move to a tiny, poor town in southern Colorado to build a solar home from the footers up. Now we live close to nature in “be-here-now” land, and life just keeps getting better…