I’m one of those people who believe everything happens for a reason and things find you when you’re ready for them. Whether that’s actually true or not, it gives me comfort in this uncertain life to believe that.
I decided this morning was the right day to spin Joan Baez’s “David’s Album” record I got a little over a month ago. I took the photo, per my usual routine, and then sat down with the book I just started reading. I turned the album cover over and read Joan’s words about the record. The album, which came out in spring 1969, was dedicated to her husband, David. He was serving time in prison for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. Her words read like poetry as she articulated why he refused to fight, and the importance of believing in something bigger than yourself for a more peaceful existence. Her closing sentences brought it all together for me:
“You and I must, with our lives, build a world where we are as sure of the perpetuation and flowering of life as we are of the triumph of Spring.”
So on this Sunday spring morning, as I drink my coffee, listen to music and read, I wonder … Is it a coincidence I chose to listen to this album, found those words, at the same time I started Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” book? Absolutely not. I don’t know yet what I’m destined to learn, but I know it’s something and it will be meaningful to my life in some way.