There are those who believe there’s no such thing as luck, that serendipity is what happens when planning meets opportunity.
Then there are those who believe there are no coincidences in life, that everything happens by some cosmic design or that we subconsciously create the lives we live, even those aspects of it we think we don’t want.
Have you ever known someone who seems to consistently have bad luck and the more they complain about their misfortune the worse it gets?
There have been times in my own life where I was a shining example of this and it seemed that one negative thing piled on top another, and another, and another.
On the other hand, there have also been many times where I focused on something I wanted, saw it happening in my mind and it magically appeared.
I’m not talking about winning the lottery. If only it were that easy.
But there are numerous examples in my life where coincidence led to incredibly good fortune, including one this past week.
We have been for weeks desperately searching for a beach house, thinking the sand and surf is what Costa Rica is all about and what we should be enjoying during our year in this tropical destination.
But nothing seemed to work out, the endless options of housing and beaches not quite right for whatever reason.
Then my parents decided to visit, and plan to arrive at the end of December and stay for a month.
The beach idea suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea, the thought of my retired folks suffering in the heat in something much less than an air-conditioned five-star resort too much.
So we changed our plans and started looking for a house in a place called Atenas, a small Costa Rican town ideally located between the beach and the mountains that is said by National Geographic to have the best weather in the world.
Problem is, every real estate agent in Atenas told us there was nothing available there, that every fully furnished rental home was presently occupied and would be throughout the rest of the high season here in Costa Rica.
So we went there, intending to scour every gate, restaurant, grocery store and public billboard in search of ‘house for rent’ signs and ads.
That’s when things began to take an unexpected but fortunate twist.
We booked into a small resort called Poco Cielo, which turned out to be owned by a couple from the small town near Calgary where I grew up. By coincidence, my father had just a week earlier sent me an e-mail about their resort after having run into a mutual acquaintanceof the couple’s back home in Canada but I had forgotten about it.
The evening we stayed, the couple invited a friend of theirs to dinner and he told them that evening he had accepted a job back in the U.S. and would be leaving in January after four years of living in Costa Rica.
As it happened, he broke the news in front of my husband, who mentioned we were looking for a place to live.
By the next day, we signed a deal to live in this man’s house, a fantastic property perched on a mountainside with the kind of view I had dreamed we would enjoy while living in Costa Rica.
Then, we sped down to the beach, where we had also planned to look at a house and picked up an almost half-price deal for the month of December at a place that we had not intended on looking at.
Was this a case of planning coinciding with opportunity or was there something more at work?
At the end of the day, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
What’s important is that three days from now, we’ll be splashing in the waves of the Pacific and enjoying Christmas at the beach and after a month’s vacation living in the kind of home we dreamed about.
Life in Costa Rica is looking up.
Yippee! i could say all sorts of things about serendipidity and putting out your wishes into the universe, but i wont except to say that if you keep your eye on the prize and live your life with it focussed, then…things happen. great news. look forward to tales from Casa Hope but i think im gonna miss Casa Roach just a little. Enjoy Christmas and your folks.
Oddly, I’m going to miss Casa Roach, too. A post on reflections from Casa Roach coming soon.
I think we make our own luck. As they say in sports, you have to be good to be lucky.
I don’t believe in fate, that things happen for a reason or that there’s a grand plan. If that were true, then why bother trying?
As Kel said, you focussed on what you wanted and seized the opportunity. Although you can’t win the lottery this way, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.
Congratulations!
I’m somewhere between the two views – I firmly believe that you create your own ‘luck’ by being prepared for an opportunity, but … I can’t explain everything that way 😛 Like after we mentally committed to moving to CR last summer, my business magically grew. Or our trip to CR, which was almost all positive and likely helped by the fact that out of 30 days, we only planned ahead for 7 and just went with the flow. Maybe it’s just the going with the flow attitude – you can’t just make things happen, but you can prepare, not worry too much about the rest of it. and enjoy what comes.
I’m glad to hear your housing has worked out so nicely – perhaps we’ll become neighbors as Atenas is our preferred locale too 🙂 It was one of our places to check out for livability and we liked the warmth, small-town vibe and lack of fast-food chains.
Hola Suzanne
Trust you and family are safe and sound, I’ve received email from our friends in CR no injuries little damage. We hope to be back in Feb, and would like to share our experiences with you.Interesting your encounter with CR policia, when we were stopped I asked for directions and totally confused the officer, I said “mucho gracias and drove away, leaving him with a very puzzled look on his face, after telling me the fine would be $10,000 colones.
Please advise best time and method to contact you, we will be in Alajuela at Alegria B&B, between mid and end of Feb
We are enjoying your columns from CR , and enjoy the Canadian view from what will become our home
Best regards and belated Happy New Year
Nigel and Carole Carlton