Serendipity

There is a word in our language that was coined by Walpole. The word is serendipity – which

mean’s essentially: something unexpected that you find when you are looking for something else. Many

of the world’s discoveries and much of the world’s progress have been brought about because someone

was seeking to discover something else – by facts that have been found when someone was looking for

other facts. Columbus is one of the historic examples. Countless other examples could be given, not

confined to geography but in science, in all professions, is farming, in mechanics and manufacturing

methods – and in finding friends, in personal things, and even in spiritual experiences. There are

innumerable things that men have discovered or developed, including talents and abilities, because they

have kept working and moving, and searching when they could scarcely see the first step – and certainly

couldn’t see the ultimate end. There are by-products in every process. One thing leads to another. One

step suggests the second. And the fact that we can’t wee through the last door need not prevent our

opening the first door. To few men has it been given to see very far into the future, but to make the

most of life a man must keep moving and working and looking, “…seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it

shall be opened unto you.” If we are not in search of something, we are less likely to find anything. If we

don’t keep moving, we are less likely to arrive anywhere. We have to make the decisions of each day to

the best of our ability and face the future with faith. And if we keep trying, if we keep moving we often

find rewarding things that we never would have found in idleness or inactivity or indecision.