Day 288. Sheer Coincidence

I woke up yesterday morning to find an email in my inbox from a friend of mine who lives in Montreal.  I met her years and years and years and years ago, through a mutual friend.  How I met our mutual friend, Jayne, is an interesting story in and of itself.

The first time I saw her, I was working at an ad agency.  It was my first job.  I heard her before I saw her.  She had this deep, throaty laugh.  Then I saw her.  Flaming red hair, arm loads of bracelets, necklace upon necklace wound around her neck, laying over and under an Hermes scarf, tied just so.  Puffing on a foul-smelling cigarette.  A Gitanes.  She was Canadian, but lived in Paris.

She had come to visit her brother-in-law, who was our production manager.  We never exchanged even one

Day 32. By Chance?

I was at a client’s yesterday.  We were discussing a blog I write for him; and what the topic should be for the next post.  He was intrigued because three different situations had taken place within two days.  Two of them on the same day, and one the day after.  Coincidentally they were all connected.  And he thought it would make for an interesting story.  I agreed.

But it made me think about my own life.

Not long after I started freelancing I was in a boutique.  Although it was literally around the corner from where I lived, and I’d walked past it dozens of times, I’d never been in.  Until that moment.  Located in a victorian town house, it’s spread over two floors.  I was on the main floor.  Suddenly, for no reason that I can remember, I looked behind me.  Coming down the stairs was a former client.  We hadn’t seen each other in years.

For a minute or two we just stared at each other.  Of all places to run into each other.  When she found out I was freelancing, she immediately told me she had a lot of work for me.  Unbelievable.

So.  Was that meeting nothing more than a chance encounter?  Just two people finding themselves in the same place at the same time; and nothing more.  Was it serendipitous?  If I’d woken up that day telling myself that I had to start looking for clients, would I have bumped