Elements of Serendipity

Chance plays a big role when it comes to owning things; I’m a firm believer in this. Chance, or faith, or coincidences, even destiny, have something to do with the things one finds or runs upon, and ends up owning. While one develops a sense of taste with the past of the time, casualties influence this sense of taste, and an element of serendipity is always present.

I learned this at a young age, when chance brought me one of the pieces that I came to like the most, and it’s a piece that carries some of my fondest memories. I still remember the day I saw it for the first time; its colors, the way it shined, its smell of adventure and the unknown.

I was only ten years old when my mother came from work one day and told me she needed me to go to her bosses house to go over some things they were getting rid of. I wasn’t too excited about it, but agreed to accompany my mother. It was summer then, and I figured there wasn’t much going on that day anyway. I agreed to go with my mother, and then I would go back home and play with my friends like any other day.

We got to the big house, and the tall ceilings were the first thing that caught my eye. I helped my mother put some boxes away, and quickly noticed there wasn’t much for me there. We put away some books for my older brother, some records for my father, and were about to leave when I saw them. It was under a box, and when I lifted the box its colors smiled at me through the dust.

It was a leather archery quiver, filled with colorful arrows. Something in it called me, perhaps it was the texture of the leather, or the colors of the arrows, but I knew I wanted to keep it. It took a little while to convince my mother, but she agreed to let me keep it as long as I was careful with it.

So much time has passed since then, but I’m still certain running into the archery quiver defined my relationship with the things I have now. Sometimes I look at it and think of my mother, the tall ceilings, the big house, being ten years old again, and I think of my childhood, and how something so simple can make you so happy.