The plan. Everyone talks about it in one way or another, but no one knows exactly what it is and exactly where it leads.
Sometimes we notice the patterns, the twists and turns, the intricate dance of coincidence—or if you believe as I do—that there are no coincidences, then the intricately magnetic dance into the places we are supposed to be.

We are lucky at times and notice it as it happens. And sometimes we can only see it clearly as we look back on the journey we just took. “Ahhh, now I know why that happened. Now I know why I had to be right in that particular moment, because it brought on this moment here right now.”

Some would call that thinking insane. Some would call it backwards or stupid or silly. Some would call it a variety of names instead of the name I give it. God. That’s the name I choose and that is what I believe. It doesn’t even matter that the people who have been lead into my life don’t believe it at all, or question it or ignore it. They are here as they should be. I am here where I am supposed to be.

It doesn’t mean life is hunky dory or that I have not had immense struggle through many moments just to get to this one moment. It just means that I see how it came to be and I am grateful for the lessons that directed me to this part of my life. But I am more grateful that I can see the pattern—the connection of one incident to another—the connection of lives as if we are all part of some extravagant string of pearls. Each of us is needed to touch each other for the world to wear us well. We are not loose baubles rolling around in this life; an unbroken silver chain runs through us all.

I have been graced lately with seeing how my actions may affect others. Simple actions that I think have no bearing on someone else actually do. I need to be more aware of this. I need to be better at making sure that what I do doesn’t hurt as I go along this unknown path, living a plan that I have no idea about other than—I am supposed to be right here, in this moment and in the next if that is part of it.

We all flounder in life. Each of us have had minutes and days and weeks and months and years of not knowing what the heck we are doing or what in the world is going on. We ask ourselves, “Why me?” or “Why now?” and “Why did this happen?” There aren’t any clear cut answers. Rarely do those answers even come when we are in the midst of our moments. They come later, when we retrace our steps, and sometimes they never come at all.
We still need to have a fumbling sort of faith that there is actually a reason to go through the things we go through. We need to remember—it leads us to now and that it isn’t about only us.

Our journey is not solely about “our own” journey. It is the people we touch along the way. It is about those lives that we pull and push along with us even when we have no idea that a simple act of kindness, or an encouraging word, or just not saying that horrible thing you were thinking—is leading you and whomever you encountered to this moment.

It is a dizzying thought. It’s like trying to see every star in the sky at the exact same time when I think of how every action taken affects someone at some time. Our existence is so much bigger than we could ever imagine and the impact lasts so much longer than a lifetime.

I supposed that is how it was planned.

Monika M. Basile