Route to Reasons

Throughout my life, I have heard the phrase “everything happens for a reason” more times than I care to count. I would have to say that probably 99% of the time I hear it is when something tragic or depressing has taken place. And I was always left wondering “what possible reason could there be for THIS to happen to ME?”

When we’re younger, something like this just doesn’t make any sense at all. That’s because we haven’t seen the way life unfolds yet though. But as we get older, and we start to notice the cause and effect of certain events in our lives, we begin to appreciate how accurate that old saying truly is.

This of course does not mean “everything happens for a GOOD reason” or, “everything that happens will benefit you in some way”. So, I will admit the saying is rather vague, but I feel the whole point of it is to just accept everything life throws at us. Sometimes things turn out for the best, sometimes not, but we don’t get to choose what happens in our lives all the time.

Even through some of the darkest moments of my life, I had become a better person afterwards. We will experience heart breaks, lose loved ones, friendships will fall apart, we may even contemplate taking our own life. What I find to be truly amazing is that we can go through all of this and always remember what we have been through, yet we are able to continue start new chapters of our lives.

Every now and then, usually when I’m questioning my path in life, I notice small hints that I am in fact headed in the right direction. The day my son was born, for instance. Almost five years ago now and I still have traumatic flashbacks of that night. He was born two months early, and I thought I would lose him and his mother.

As I stood alone in an empty hospital room, the world around me stopped spinning. I was frozen in time for what felt like eternity. When the doctor finally told me everything was alright, he took me to see my baby boy and at that very moment I knew I was right where I needed to be. That single moment assured me that everything that happened in my life so far was for a reason, and he was smiling right at me.

Now almost five years later, and every day I am reminded of the amazing spontaneousness of life. Just the other day my son and I were watching a movie and playing with his toys the two of us said something at the same time. Not only did we say it at the same time, but someone in the movie said it too. My son laughed and said “How does that happen?” The only answer I could come up with was “Son, everything happens for a reason, and sometimes life will remind you that you are on the right track”.

It may not always be that easy to see it, but fate leaves little clues. And in a life that we have so little control over, we need to keep a positive attitude and embrace the next chapter of our lives. Make the most of what you have, spread happiness as far as you can, and enjoy the ride.