Coincidence? I think not.

Did you ever leave the house, only to find that you’ve forgotten your keys/purse/phone and had to go back to get them?  Are you ever the only one NOT to get through the green arrow in traffic, annoyed because you’re forced to wait through endless oncoming traffic before you can proceed?

We have all been there.  It’s so very easy to get irritated when you’re running late getting to work or school on time, or trying to get to the show before it starts, or the store before it closes, the repair shop before it closes.  Some people think that the universe must be working against them, trying to keep them from getting there.

My daughter has this theory that the reason you are running behind is that something, or someone, is looking out for you.  Keeping you safe.  Keeping you in one piece.  Looking out for you.

Most people don’t feel very lucky if they are caught behind a train, or oversleep, or lock themselves out of the car at the mall.  In a thunderstorm.  With tired, hungry children.  (Yep, true story.)  It makes people crabby when their lives don’t go exactly as planned.

However, they would quickly change their minds when they finally got that green light, only to shortly thereafter pass a terrible accident they surely would have been a part of.

Or they got home with those same tired, hungry kids…only to see that during that thunderstorm, the tree in the front yard smashed in the roof over the kids’ bedroom, where they would have been napping had Mommy NOT been locked out.

Something’s looking out for you.

Case in point:

You forget your presentation at home…but when you run back to get it, you’re able to unplug the iron.

You oversleep…but are home to call 911 and help when you see the elderly neighbor across the street fall down on the slippery driveway.

You get detained in a long line at the grocery store…but are able to network with a possible employer and get a better job.

It’s all in the timing; there is no such thing as coincidence.

It’s gratifying to watch your children form their own observations about life, and satisfying to hear their reasoning about why things happen the way they do, but it is really cool to see  that they have also learned the fact that sometimes the same thing making you late is the very thing keeping you safe.