Happy Accidents

My Daily Snap features what Ken Macrorie calls "happy accidents" in his book Writing to Be Read.  This blog's header quotes that book: "Most of us go through each day looking for what we saw yesterday and we find it, to our half-realized disappointment.  But people who daily expect to encounter fabulous realities run smack into them again and again.  They keep their minds open for their eyes."

This morning, and every morning for several months now, I opened my mind by strolling around Lake Cheston, where everything serves as feast for my eyes. 

Today, I rounded the bend to the trestle bridge and suddenly thought about Brenda, my deceased sister-in-law, who died accidentally when she fell from a deck opening onto her favorite view.  The last thing she saw was a sweeping vista of mountains in fall regalia topped by blue sky.  The last thing she heard was birdsong.  The last air she breathed was cool and clean.

And then I thought If I die right now, here, I will be happy because I live in paradise. 

My coming to Sewanee -- a fallen Episcopalian among Episcopal church-goers -- has been one of the happiest accidents of my life.