This I Believe

I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe in fate and destiny which convinces me that coincidences do not exist. Everything that occurs is a small piece of the big picture. Events in our lives all form together to make our own specific and unique portrait.
Several summers ago, my family and I were going to take one final trip all together before half of my family would leave for college that coming fall. So we got in our RV and headed for Yellow Stone National Park, in Montana. About halfway there, the RV broke down. We took it to the nearest auto repair shop, which was literally in the middle of nowhere. The greasy “experts” told us that it was a very serious problem that would require much time to fix, and a couple grand. Apparently, the transmission was completely shot! So there we were, in 103 degree heat, without shelter, without transportation, and all very irritable.
While the mechanics worked steadily on our RV, the fam and I stayed in a little run of the mill hotel and spent most of our time by the tiny pool. We never did make it to Yellow Stone that summer. However, while reading the newspaper in our cramped hotel room one evening, my parents quickly learned that a severe mudslide had occurred in the park. It was a fatal mudslide and we were lucky not to be there.
Though we spent our last precious family trip together in a dusty old town and in 103 degree heat, I know it was for the best. We could have been up to our knees in mud… or worse! We will have experiences in our lives that are really hurtful and damaging to us. There is no avoiding them. The reasons they occurred may not always be as clear as my situation was. It is comforting to know that when disaster strikes it is for a reason rather than just by chance. We must realize that it happened for a reason. All we need to do is take a step back and look at the big picture instead of focusing on the here and now.