Do You Believe in Fate, Destiny ... Magic?

Do you believe things always work out for the best?

Do you believe in fate?

In destiny?

Karma?

Magic?

I realize it's easy and reassuring to say, "Things will work out the way they were meant to be."

But is it true? 

When I was young, I believed all the pieces of life fit together in a gigantic puzzle just the way they were meant to.

Now ...?

Not so much.

Bad shit happens.

Gray is the predominant color where black and white used to rule.

Good people frequently suffer.

Bad people often rise to the top.

Not always, of course - but more often than I used to believe.

Is it fate I married my husband?

Whatever happened to Mr. Electric whom I dated just prior to meeting Briefcase?

(And no, he's not on Facebook!) 

Did he become the lousy husband I feared he'd be?

Or someone's Knight in Shining Armor?

Is it fair, or right, when someone with little (or no) talent becomes a success because they've got the "right" connections?

What about the uber-talented person who is never discovered?

And I mean, never ....

Dying without recognition, even posthumously.

What is all that talent about, if not to be shared?

Is it destiny my computer crashed AND my camera memory card went bad in the same week?  (Okay, this might not be a life-shattering situation, but really??)

What happened to the man who drove recklessly through a stop sign and irrevocably changed my life?

Has his life gone forward perfectly, with no thought for the havoc he caused?

Do you ever think back to old lovers and/or old friends and wonder if they were in your life for a reason?

How can certain people have such a big impact, 

And then POOF!

Be gone, out of your life forever ....?

Is it all random chaos?

It's so easy to say people come into your life (and leave) for a reason - but that just might be the best line of bullshit ever.

OK, now it's your turn -

Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it -

Do you believe in it?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Comments

[Jan]

No, I do not believe in fate or destiny. I believe in happenstance and coincidence - some good, some bad. But fate? No.

[WebSavvyMom]

-->I believe everything happens for a reason.

Also, put Sliding Doors in your Netflix queue if you haven't seen it. I think about that movie all the time when certain things happen / don't happen in my life and it's always by just a small event.

[Denise]

Interesting question. I can look back on chapters in my life and see how certain events led me to a new chapter. I do believe there are universal influences at play. Other things seem confusing to me. Why are some lives cut short? Why are some people able to rise above their circumstances and others are not? I know for certain some things are "meant to be" because the result is almost unexplainable in any other way. Is that fate or destiny? I don't know what you call it, I just know it's real.

[Cute~Ella]

I believe that everything does happen for a reason, even if that reason doesn't have anything to do with you - sometimes we're just bystanders in someone else's lessons. But I do not believe that our lives are predetermined.

[sandi]

This entire post made me cry.... Maybe we should have lunch today. I might need one last dose of you.

[Skyler]

Cute~Ella sums it all up perfectly!

[Jack @ TheJackB]

I don't know. There are things that have happened to me that are inexplicable. People and events make me scratch my head and think maybe....

But most of the time I see life as coincidence guided by my choices and decisions.

[Nancy P]

The older I get the more I believe that things do happen for a reason. I usually don't see it at the time but looking back I can see how this thing affected that thing that affected that..etc.
Also, yes. what Cute`Ella said.

[Bernadette Smith]

There are times that I feel like something is conspiring against me, but then I remember how lucky I was to meet my Mr. Smith. I met him when I was working at a job I hated. He came for a job interview that I wanted to cancel. He got the job, we worked together for several months, started dating, fell in love the moment he kissed me on our first date and got married 3 months later. We have now been married for six years, two kids, one dog later and I can't tell you how lucky I feel. All that despite his mother suing us, trying to keep a business running in our horrible economy, and him getting cancer (he's fine).

I can't imagine how empty my life would be if I had cancelled that job interview! Our destiny turns on the head of a pin. The smallest decisions change your direction, but you can't see it until the moment has passed.

I do believe in fate, but there are other forces that impact it.

[Mike Ep]

I understand both sides of the fence on this one. Some would say, there's no other explanation other than fate or destiny. Others would say, "Why are we assigning a meaning to something that otherwise, completely objectively would have no meaning?". A great picture that would show how we can assign randomness is to imagine a Barn filled with bullet holes, all around little red circles, not one of them outside of one. Most people, who usually assign meaning to things would look at this barn and say, Wow! this person was an amazing shot - they didn't miss one target! They assumed that each bullet had a purpose and an aim to hit those specific marks. The other side, would say, anyone in anyone's life could make a barn look the exact same way, simply shoot at a barn that is completely mark-less, then afterwards, paint red marks around all of the bullet holes. This is how people would look at the same barn, assuming that each of the bullets were in fact, meaningless shots.

I honestly can't say I do agree or Disagree with things happening for a reason, because honestly, how could we ever prove it? Sure, a broken camera MIGHT have actually saved your life, if during a picture you'd be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What's to say that for the unfortunate, that's exactly what happens, whether it's for a reason or not? Whether or not things happen for a reason, you're here now, and you should be very thankful, as there are plenty of circumstances which you might have met your demise, but luckily, we're still here.

[Denise ;)]

I believe in Carma....what goes around, comes around. What you put out into the world will return to you. Perhaps not in a week, year or even a lifetime, but it will return to you. Life is not random, there are life lessons to be learned. Experiences that make us grow. Untill you experience pain or sorrow you lack compassion because you are unable to relate. Life experiences make all of us better more loving people. So we should all be thankful for our ruff patches in life. Otherwise we would concentrate on self aggrandizing, thinking only of our needs and wants. ;)

[Amy]

I believe there are connections beyond what we can explain. I don't know what you call it though. : ))))

[karen]

I don't believe in fate... things happen, good and bad. I think when great things happen to people, they tend to want to believe fate had something to do with it...that they got what they deserved. Truth is people don't always get what they deserve, good and bad. Does someone who has to deal with some really shitty stuff want to believe it was on purpose?

[Liz Tee]

It's human nature to create our story from what happens to us. We can't know what might have happened, so whatever choice we made has to be for "the best" or we would go nuts, or be one of those bitter people stuck in if-only land. It's our job to make things work out and to do the best we can with whatever shit sticks to us along the way. I don't believe in a master puppeteer writing our script. I know we have a lot more choice in life than we think, but our fear keeps us from seeing it sometimes. And everything that happens to us (and how we react) makes us who we are.

That being said, I have had some oddly specific coincidences happen in my life, and I am grateful for them. I also am the first to admit that there is probably a lot more going on beyond our understanding than we will ever know, and I am ok with that. I just gotta do the best I can with what I got.

Right now I'm sitting here in a hospital, 2600 miles from home, with my adult daughter. She has been here three weeks. We don't know when she'll get released. I have a 12 year old at home with his dad who is having a tough time with this. And the day after tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of my second husband's death from cancer. We were married only ten months.

All I can do it hang on and try to keep the shiny side up, you know?

[Linda Tustin]

I don't believe in fate exactly but I do sort of believe that every action has a natural reaction. The guy that hit you had a bad habit of driving like shit and that carelessness probably carried over to other areas of his life and most likely burned him eventually (HOPEFULLY) thus- karma. The guy who bullied people where I work- eventually fired.. I don't know, I have seen most of the bad people in my life eventually get what is coming to them, sometimes you just have to wait. If I don't see it , it might be as imperceptible as they die alone- knowing no one loves them, again karma. I have also seen hard work and loyalty pay off, nice things happen to nice people as a direct result of thier actions. Some shit has no explanation, but how people deal with the shit that is dealt them determines how it will affect thier lives. Like how you deal. YOU ROCK. kisses.

[Kathy]

Do you believe in god? Then doesn't it stand to reason that s/he (or it) makes things happen for a reason? I've been pondering this for a while. I recently read Penn Jillette's book "God, No!" (don't buy it for info...he doesn't explain much about his position as an atheist but he tells some really funny stories)and honestly I can't understand that why, if there is a god, then why do bad things happen to good people? And good things happen to bad people? One would think that karma wouldn't allow that to happen. But it happens all the time.

Intellectually I've come to the conclusion that there is not a "higher power" but the rest of me is having a hard time accepting that.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure during this life time whether there is a fate, destiny or a god. I've talked to a psychic who says we all live in the "ether" and we chose to come back to earth (reincarnation?) to learn certain lessons. Not sure if I believe that either.

Mostly because my logical brain won't accept anything that doesn't have proof (which is amusing because I am disabled by fibromyalgia...a disorder that has no proof except to completely up-end my life). Which leaves me with random chaos.

Ya know what? I don't think we have to accept or decide to believe in anything. Maybe life is fate mixed in with random chaos. How would we know? Can I just chose to not believe in either theory?

Would my belief or lack of belief change anything in my life? Hmmm....