By Jim Hagarty
I am a believer in serendipity, even if I am not exactly sure what that is.
Maybe it’s better to say, I look to the Universe now and then for signs and because I am open to them, I guess, I tend to see them more often than you might think a person should or would.
I used to be a heavy smoker. But there finally came a day, after almost 20 years, when I managed to quit. That was a long time ago when I walked away from the addiction.
But addictions are patient things, always kind of waiting around to get you again if they can.
Today, I had an uncontrollable urge to buy a pack of cigarettes. I fought it all day, but I pretty much knew it was going to be a losing battle. So I drove to the local smoke shop. But before I went there, I stalled a little. Instead, I went into a hardware store to buy a few things. In the back of my mind, I thought maybe the urge would somehow go away if I stalled for time.
I pushed the shopping cart out of the store and across the parking lot to my car. Placing my purchases in the car, I turned to wheel the cart back to the store. When I was almost there, a man about my age came walking my way, carrying a black plastic canister in one hand. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I examined it a bit closer, he saw me doing that and he made eye contact with me briefly.
Tubes were coming from the canister to an apparatus the man wore around his neck. He was carrying an oxygen tank, though he didn’t have the nose piece in place at that moment.
I don’t know what happened to this man to cause him to need oxygen. Maybe he never smoked a cigarette in his life.
But it was odd that he would appear just as I was set to head over to the smoke shop. Now, along with the notion of a cigarette, I had the image of an oxygen tank in my brain.
I got in my car and drove home.
