It Only Takes a Moment

I started thinking about how a person’s life could change in a moment.  I know there are lots of sad things that can do that, but I was focusing on happier things.

So, the obvious is a big lottery win.  Of course, that is also a rare occurrence.  But there are other smaller things.  Last night as we were going to Porto’s Bakery, I was thinking how it has become a major place we go to and it’s all because read a piece about an espresso drink they have that I wanted to try, in the AAA magazine.

I could say that my whole current life happened because I bought a guitar.  The chain of events goes like this.  I used up all my money to buy the guitar and didn’t have money for lessons.  Since I needed money, I got a job as a waitress in a coffee place across the street from where I lived. I might add that it was completely out of my comfort zone.  It was a student hang out and I made a lot of friends.  I encountered one of the friends I’d made when I started going to Roosevelt University.  He was sitting with someone who worked on the school paper.  I’d gone to the University of Illinois for a  a year and worked on the college  newspaper there so I was all for it when my friend’s friend asked me if I wanted to work on the Roosevelt Torch.  It was on the newspaper that I found my voice and met my husband.  I still have the guitar and I never learned how to play it.

And my writing career all turned on a trip to FAO Schwartz toy store  in Las Vegas.  I will killing time and decided to look at the dolls.  The way the store was arranged you had to walk across the entire second floor to get to the escalator to the third floor where the dolls were.  As I was crossing the second floor by chance I looked to my right and saw a children’s kit for crocheting granny squares.  I had been fascinated with them since I was a kid and always wanted to learn how to make them.  I bought the kit.  I used it and learned how to make a granny square.  Then I thought I could teach myself all things crochet and I got the idea of mixing it with mystery.  What if I hadn’t turned my head?

What about you?  Is there something that sent your life on a different path?