The Beauty of Serendipity

Statue of Zeus in Greece

“The more I draw and write, the more I realize that accidents are a necessary part of any creative act, much more so than logic or wisdom. Sometimes a mistake is the only way of arriving at an original concept, and the history of successful inventions is full of mishaps, serendipity and unintended results.” ~ Shaun Tan

“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” ~ Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist

“After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” ~ Philip Pullman

“I’ve always loved life, and I’ve never known what’s ahead. I love not knowing what might be round the corner. I love serendipity.” ~ Twiggy

In a way you could say serendipity is a happy accident. I was fortunate enough to have two happy accidents happen recently. 

I’m a big YouTube fan. There are so many inspirational videos that I check out almost every day. They have great music for meditation too.

One day this past week, out of the blue, a video titled, Finding Joe, came up in my feed. When I read the description, I was excited to find that it was a documentary about Joseph Campbell. Since we saw his discussions with Bill Moyers on PBS in The Power of Myth, many years ago, I’ve been a fan. 

So, I listened to my little voice and watched the video and discovered that it was a perfect introduction to storytelling that I can use in my dramatic structure class. In the video it tells how Joseph Campbell became interested in myth and how his interest led him to study myths from all over the globe. He found that they were similar in the messages they were designed to impart. The documentary also outlines how his work has influenced storytellers of all kinds, most particularly George Lucas, who Joseph Campbell said in The Power of Myth was his very best student. His work also influenced spiritual teachers like Deepak Chopra. His theory of “The Hero’s Journey” can be applied to almost any story and our personal lives as well. 

At one point the creatives and spiritual teachers talk about how we are all on a hero’s journey and we can decided whether to stay stuck, or like Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Diana Prince, and Carol Danvers, leave our old worlds behind and venture into the unknown. The path will not be easy, but as we come out the other side, we’re stronger, more confident, and better able to navigate the next round of challenges because the hero’s journey doesn’t happen just once in our lives. We get to choose again and again whether we’ll continue to grow or not.

That got me thinking about my own life. I’ve been blessed with what I have always called, “my little voice.” It’s really more of an inner knowing that has helped me through lots of crossroad moments. I mean it’s scary when you feel like you’re about to jump off the edge of the world you’ve been living in. There’s no way of knowing if the leap will lead to a better place or if we’ll crash and burn.

Actually for me, the crash and burns happened when I tried to fit into the mold other people wanted me to put me in. And then as I have picked myself up, I realized that the crash was my friend. It was a wake up call.

Lately I’ve felt like I’m in a big transition from one phase of my life to the next phase. I’m impatient to move forward, and yet my little voice is telling me to stay put for awhile. In this case, I’m chomping at the bit to quit teaching, but I’m helping my friend Dave get established and ready to take my place. Right now he is only able to teach the performance class because of his many years working as a theatre professional. But soon he’ll have his Masters and I have to say, I’m looking forward to that day.

When I first started teaching theatre at the college, I was hoping to build a full-fledged theatre department. But I now realize that wasn’t my purpose. It was a stepping stone to other things for me, and I was a place holder for my friend Dave. 

Thursday night we had a convocation for the associate faculty prior to classes beginning on Monday. Dave is so excited about finishing his Masters program and teaching more classes at the college that he went to the convocation for the full-time faculty, the fine art department meeting, and then the evening convocation. We met about an hour and a half before the evening meeting and he is full of ideas to improve the theatre department. I was excited because he’s the one who has the energy and knowledge to make what I had envisioned come true. 

Maybe that’s what the Finding Joe video was all about for me. That sometimes we’re not the ones to accomplish the vision. We begin the process and someone else completes it. Then we move on to something that IS meant for us to do. We take what we’ve learned with us as we navigate life.

As I look back, I see that one step I’ve taken outside the box has led me from one thing to the next, to the next, and so on. It’s cumulative and now my little voice is telling me that the Story~Power podcast I started July 2020 is the culmination of all my study about storytelling. I may not come up with a world renowned theory like Joseph Campbell did, but I can spread the love of stories. And maybe one or more of my episodes will help someone at just the right time. Stories are, as Philip Pullman says in the above quote, one of the most important things for humans. We’re made to understand them as Roger C. Schank says. We connect with them for a vital reason. If we see other people who have the courage to step out of their comfort zones and move into the unknown, we are assured that we can too. Sometimes a story will give us the push we need, or give us hope that, if we have a dream, it can come true.

The second bit of serendipity happened in June, I got an invitation to join PodMatch, a kind of dating service for podcasters and guests. In general, I’m skeptical when I get solicitations via email. But again, my little voice told me to take the leap. It told me try it out! I’m so glad I listened. I’ve connected with enough guests to take me through the new year so far. And I’ve been invited to be a guest on someone’s podcast. It’s interesting how serendipity works. I’m grateful that someone at PodMatch saw that I had a podcast, or maybe even listened to it, and invited me. THANK YOU UNIVERSE! 

I hope you go watch Finding Joe. I found it to be quite inspirational. You can also find the documentary on Gaia TV if you don’t like YouTube.

Have a great weekend. As my dad used to say, “Nothing ever stays the same, so we might as well embrace the change.”

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2021

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

Kindness is Contagious

Caring Hands

“Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’ – she always called me Elwood – ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.” ~ James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie, Harvey

“No act of kindness is ever wasted.” ~ Aesop

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” ~ Princess Diana

Harvey (1960) is a very famous movie and one of James Stewarts favorites of his own movies. I must admit, I only saw it for the first time about a year ago and loved it. It’s about a middle aged man who claims that a six-foot tall rabbit named Harvey is his very best friend. Most people can’t see Harvey, and for the most part they humor Elwood, because he’s not only pleasant, but kind and generous as well. His sister isn’t one of his fans, however. She thinks he’s crazy and wants to put him in an institution. But the point of this movie is that being kind is contagious and in the end, Elwood has a profound positive affect on those around him.

We returned from vacation a week ago and I have to say that all those months of being locked down has had a profound affect on people. Almost everyone we met was not only pleasant, but kind as well, which made our trip so lovely. Each brief interaction buoyed my spirits. It was like people were hungry for positive human interaction after long isolation.

It occurred to me this morning that to be kind, we must be emotionally intelligent and stable. So, when someone isn’t kind, perhaps being pleasant and kind to them might give them a slight ray of hope. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve been distressed or depressed, it’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But someone giving me a smile, or being kind to me has helped shift my perception and made it easier to move forward.

I hope we continue to be pleasant to each other because if we do, we can be like Elwood P. Dowd subtly changing the lives of those around us.

I’m grateful to those of you who follow and read this blog. Have a pleasant week ahead and maybe go watch Harvey.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2021

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

Dragons Are Good

Writer, mother, ruler of the world inside her head…mostly. A.D. Trosper lives on the plains of Kansas, out where there are more cows than people and the sunsets are amazing. She adores her flock of spoiled laying hens, her dogs, and the cat that owns her. She loves to game, mainly on her computer but sometimes console as well. She is convinced that coffee and chocolate are both food groups, that dragons should be real, and there is always space in a story for magic and love.

Dragons Are Good

Raven Daughter Series, Unveiled, Betrayed, Chosen, A.D. Trosper

Bound by Time, Bound by Legend, A.D. Trosper

Dragon’s Call Series, A New Beginning: Dragon’s Call Prequel, Embers at Galdrilene, Tears of War, Ashes and Spirits, A.D. Trosper

The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West, Mary Stanton

The Black Stallion, Walter Farley, Movie, (1979) Carroll Ballard, Director, Melissa Mathison, Jeanne Rosenberg, William D. Wittliff, Screen Writers

Black Beauty: With the Classic Illustrated, Anna Sewell

Dungeons and Dragons Game

Legend (1985) Ridley Scott, Director, William Hjortsberg, Screen Writer

Willow (1988) Ron Howard, Director, George Lucas, Story, Bob Dolman, Screen Writer

Dragonslayer (1981) Matthew Robbins, Director, Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, Screen Writers

A.D. Trosper Website, Amazon, Facebook

Stacy Bennett, Author, Amazon, Facebook Instagram, (stacybennettauthor)

Quest of the Dreamwalker, Son of Anubus, Tales of the Archer, Call of the Huntress, Stacy Bennett

The Space Between Time, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden

Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows book 2), Shadow and Bone, Books by Leigh Bardugo TV show (2021) Mairzee Almas, Lee Toland Krieger, Dan Liu, Directors, Leigh Bardugo, Eric Heisserer, Vanya Asher, and 5 other Screen Writers 

The Circle of Ceridwen Series, Octavia Randolph

Great Alone, Kristin Hannah

“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” ~ Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist

Be Curious

Red Shadow Sky
Red Shadow Sky Magic Wand Sunset Cloud Girl

“Be curious, not judgmental.” ~ Ted Lasso quoting Walt Whitman

“The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.” ~ E. M. Forster

The other day, Barry and I had lunch with a dear college friend of ours. We met her new husband and we got to talking about noticing how some people claim to be loving but are so judgmental. I mentioned that I have begun to examine my own attitudes and actions toward other people more closely as I have read and listened to spiritual teachers. I was dismayed to find that I’m often judgmental. I guess we all are. We’re not even aware of the disparity in our beliefs and attitudes unless we choose to pay attention.

As we talked, I remembered one episode of Ted Lasso that I watched with Barry. It’s episode 8, “The Diamond Dogs.” Okay, I admit it, I wasn’t a big fan of the show at first. In general, I’m not a big sports fan, and the show is about a college football coach from the U.S. who is hired to coach a professional British (soccer) Futbol team. Not my idea of an interesting show. I was being judgmental. I thought the show was one thing, when in reality it’s something completely different.

Barry loves the show so much that he has watched the first season three times. And while we were visiting family, the first episode of the second season aired. So, of course we had a Ted Lasso watch party complete with Ted’s shortbread biscuits (cookies). The ones that he bakes and shares with the boss every morning. Barry researched lots of recipes and baked them for the family. They were a hit.

The episode I mentioned above was one where Ted plays darts with Rebecca’s ex-husband for controlling interest in ownership of the team.  By this time, Ted has won over many of the players and even some of the press. He knows some of Rebecca’s story and hopes to help her retain control of the team. Rupert, the ex-husband, is arrogant. He’s sure he’s going to beat this hick from the American Midwest and gain back what he lost in the divorce settlement. He wants to stick it to his ex but has no idea how wrong he is about Ted. 

As the game is at a critical point, Ted tells the story about being underestimated his entire life and how that used to bother him. But one day as he was driving his son to school, he saw a quote by Walt Whitman painted on the side of a building. It read, “Be curious, not judgmental”. He liked that. As he contemplated this quote he realized that the people who underestimated him, were judgmental, not curious about who he really was. For example, in this case no one, but especially Rupert, thought to ask if he had lots of experience playing darts. I won’t spoil what happens next.

The point is that I have recently realized that I’m a curious person. I love hearing people tell their stories. Mostly that’s because of my parents. Being a part of theatre also helped. Everyone involved in a production must analyze the play so that the costumes, setting, music, and lighting help the audience get a clue about who the characters are. Play analysis is most important for the actors and director. What motivates the characters to make the choices they do in the play? What are the back stories of the relationships between characters? 

After picking apart plays and other stories for so many years, I am even more curious about people than I was when I was younger. I’m interested in what has influenced the people I talk with, what have they learned, and what are their hopes and dreams. 

That’s partly why I started Story~Power. I get to listen to people share why they love stories, the ones that mean the most to them, and how they have been affected by those stories. Along the way I get to know something about who my guests are as people.

In fact, about a month ago, I realized that I became an actress and a director, a teacher, blogger and podcaster because I’m curious about people. If I listen carefully, I can learn something important from every person I talk to.

But I can never lose sight of the fact that even though I’m curious, I can also be judgmental. When I am, I assume I know who “that” person is without finding out anything about them. And that’s not good. Every person has a vast wealth of experience that can potentially connect me to them.

So, I want to cultivate curiosity. It’s the only way I know how to understand just a little bit about experiences and places that would not normally be a part of my life.

To return to Ted Lasso. The tag line for the second season is: “Kindness is back!” I love that! Ted and his friend Coach Beard are the opposite of the macho, toxic males that we think of populating the sports world. In my opinion we can use a lot more kindness and positive male images in this world. Maybe curiosity encourages kindness and visa versa.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you are having a wonderful summer/winter wherever you are in the world. Feel free to leave a comment or share these posts with your friends. Let’s spread kindness and curiosity to as many people as we can.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2021

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

Friends of the Heart

Heart Connection (by Alisa Looney)

“Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” ~ Bill Watterson

“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for the handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Since I’m an introvert, I have lots of acquaintances. But people who are friends of my heart, not so many. While we’re on vacation, we’re connecting with one or two of these. 

Friends of the heart are ones that you just feel like you’ve known from the moment you meet them and when you get together after months or years, you feel like no time has passed.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the living room of one of those kinds of friends. It’s her birthday too! We get to help her set up her new computer, and then go out for a birthday dinner. It’s just one day out of our two weeks here, but visiting with her is so precious. We get to share the stories of what has happened to us since last we chatted and I’m happy that we are able to see each other face-to-face. I look forward to seeing our other friends as well.

Friends are so important to making life worth living. I have to admit that I have loved being quiet at home all these months. And yet spending these weeks with friends and family are memories I will cherish for the rest of my life. I love the laughter and surprises. We kept this visit secret from my husband’s brother, who is celebrating his 60th birthday, for almost a year with the help of the rest of the family. Kudos to everyone who managed to keep the secret! Watching his face when he realized we were sitting in his living room at his party was worth the 1200 mile trip.

I hope you are lucky to have at least one close friend that you can be completely yourself with. I’ve read and heard that humans are made for connection rather than competition. Who are the people you connect with? 

And sometimes “people” might be your pets. They don’t criticize us. They just love us as we are. Our friend related how she connected with the cat she recently adopted and how having her has helped her feel less alone. Maybe the pandemic has helped many of us savor our relationships because we were forced to slow down and appreciate the little moments.

As you begin to venture out again, I hope you remember to stay connected to your friends and family of the heart.

Welcome to the new followers to my website. I hope you will leave a comment either for this blog, or for my podcast, Story~Power. Stay safe and healthy wherever you are in the world.

Blessings,

Lucinda

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2021

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.