I’m not sure whether this post is the result of serendipity or happenstance. You have the meaning of serendipity above and this is what happenstance means: Happenstance means (1) chance or (2) a chance occurrence, but it has subtleties of meaning that differentiate it from chance. Whereas something that happens by chance may come out of nowhere, happenstance derives from a confluence of circumstances and may be more predictable than pure chance. (grammarist.com) Hopefully, you will have a better idea by the end of this tale.
Since my first visit to Thailand in 1979 when I first had authentic Thai food, I was sold on Thai cuisine. My taste buds just seemed to absorb each morsel with gusto. Since then, I like to try my hand at making Thai dishes. I decided to make chicken Pad Thai today. This is made with rice noodles (sen lek), It’s a very popular street food in Thailand. In both the above collages, you can see a plate with the Pad Thai that I cooked.
― Mary Oliver
As this story goes – after making the Pad Thai, I saw a small, flattened box on my dresser. I picked it up and discovered that it contained coasters from Thailand with beautiful scenes that were familiar to me from my two visits there. I was delighted! Wonderful memories of my time in Thailand came back to me. My husband had been unpacking a box that we had moved with and he had found them. As someone who blogs and uses photos in my blog posts, this was a photographer’s delight. In almost all the photo collages, you can see pictures of the coasters. Along with making the Pad Thai, I began to feel that I was really having a “Thai” day. Was discovering the box of coasters after just making the Pad Thai happenstance, serendipity, grace, luck, chance, or coincidence?
Later in the day, I paid a visit to Chapters Bookstore. Since Thailand was on my mind, I decided to browse in the Cookbook Section to see what Thai Cookbooks were available there. I found there were many good ones and the above collage shows what some of the titles are.
( Miriam Beard)
Here are some of the coasters – Head Dress of Thai Classical Dancers, The Emerald Buddha Temple, and Hill Tribe People at Leisure. The images are all very beautiful.
These are the last three coaster images that I found in the flattened box: A Buddhist Monk Accepting Food and Alms, Wat Arun, and the Floating Market. More memories came back to me. I was happy to see monks everywhere I went in Thailand. Wat Arun is a Buddhist temple with beautiful architecture and is on the Chao Praya River. That’s a place not to be missed on a visit to Thailand. The Floating Market was fun to visit and I don’t know of many like this in any other part of the world. The little boats are filled with fine fruits and vegetables.
After I had eaten my Pad Thai for dinner, I remembered my Thai Classical Dancers which are souvenir dolls. I held them lovingly and enjoyed them. This was the grand finale to my “Thai” Day. I was delighted to have the day unfold as it did with all this serendipity and happenstance. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and got a little taste of Thailand through my serendipitous experiences today. Or was it happenstance? Maybe, a combination of both.