fate

This morning on my ride to work I had to stop to figure out what was scraping my tire. It took me about three minutes to determine that it wasn't my brakes but rather my fender that was the culprit. I've been meaning to take a bike maintenance class to learn how to adjust brakes but haven't had time. I probably would have recognized the problem faster if I understood the various parts of the braking mechanism. I yanked on the fender and it easily popped back into place, sending me on my way.

A couple of miles later I came upon a lot of traffic and ultimately, a nasty car accident in the right lane. It must have happened just about, oh, say, three minutes earlier.

I say this not to scare anyone. Every day of my life I wonder how those little delays affect each of our lives. A stuck fender, waiting for the drawbridge to descend, going back for a forgotten book, spending another minute petting the cat, one tap on the snooze bar...we know not how each moment affects the next. And so for the forgotten book, the stuck fender, the chance meeting of the chatty colleague in the lobby, the line at the grocery store...for those distruptions and others I am indeed grateful.