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Pausing for a moment, teacup almost to my lips, I noticed a magpie darting
into the road to gobble up some fortuitous tidbit of food. My heart skipped a
beat as he dodged a dirty red Volvo still wearing the salt of countless
winter roads. The driver never even slowed down, just charged along on his
way, mindless of the near disaster for this beautiful bird (preoccupied
maybe, with the stress of securing his own next meal). This magpie, though,
was taking chances. I wondered just what it was that he was after... it
looked to be a bit of a discarded croissant, soggy from the recent ice-melt.
I suddenly remembered my tea and took a sip, glancing around at the other
patrons in this odd little cafe, wondering if, perhaps, it was someone from
this very establishment who had discarded the valuable piece of bread that
meant a hearty meal for a bird. I doubt it was done out of kindness, but was
rather just random chance. I savored my tea and started thinking about
chances Id taken in my own life, with sometimes no more thought for my own
safety than the magpie on the curb, now happily devouring his trophy.
Chance. Its a remarkable thing to speculate about. The chances weve taken,
random courses of action weve followed, versus the actual plans that weve
made. Ive never been much of a planner, and I think Ive trusted myself to
fate and happenstance more often than should really be comfortable. Yet,
things always seemed to work themselves out that waywhen I plan something,
thats when everything can go seriously wrong. Sitting here in a Stockholm
cafe, sipping tea and watching a magpie, is the ultimate proof of what can be
achieved without any planning whatsoever. Well, thats not strictly
true--there was some planning involved, but not nearly as much as one
might think. Our situation isnt all that unique either, but is still unusual
enough togive me pause.
Just a year ago, I had been working myself toward an early grave, in a job I
hated, with people I didnt like, over-extended financially, and too tired
for anything but occasional bouts of desperate channel surfing. My wife, too,
felt the constraints building on us, despite all our careful planning and
efforts. It was getting harder to find some escape from this self-created
hell, even with the help of mind-numbing television humor, complete with
laugh tracks to cue us in on our feelings about the jokes being thrust our
way. How did we end up in this trap? Was there no acceptable way out of this
mess of a life? This situation is surely not what we had planned on for all
those years. It wasnt how things were supposed to be. We had stopped taking
chances. We couldnt afford to take chances anymore. We were too old for
that; we had to be adults and plan things out like adults do. Make little
diagrams and pie charts of income versus debt. Mortgage payments, car
payments, taxes, health insurance, electric bills, gas bills, this bill and
that bill.
Suddenly though, something happened. Something changed. We had had enough of
that crazy lifestyle. We decided we would take a chance after all. As soon as
an opportunity arose we knew we had to at least give it a whirl. We would try
life in Europe again, this time together. So, we sold our house, packed our
bags and here we are, happy, healthy and taking the chance of a lifetime.
Some things are important enough to take a chance for: for some its a bit
of soggy croissant, for others its the chance for a new beginning in a new
world, living, like the magpie, on a wing and a prayer.
{Soon to be Published by MosaicMinds E-Zine. Visit MosaicMinds at the link to Original Publisher below this article- Ed.}
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