Is it a) Fate, b) Destiney, c) God's Will, d) Coincidence or d) all the above?

When one travels into the unknown, one has to relinquish as significant amount of personal control. The quicker one realizes this and embraces the outside forces that affect our lives, the less frustration one will experience. Take these past couple of days for example:


My good friend, Emily Garlough, is almost done with a cross-country road trip for the Habitat for Humanity Bicycle Challenge. In order to reach their final destination, Seattle, their route takes them through my backyard, North Cascades National Park! Initially, we had thought that our schedules wouldn’t coincide and resolved on meeting up in Seattle after her ride. But I ended up getting some extra free days and decided to track her down. I had a rough itinerary from her, but since cell phones don’t work in this area (shock!) and their schedule wasn’t too exact, I had no idea exactly where I could find her. However, because there’s only one highway and the local towns aren’t really more than a few main roads deep, I thought I had a good chance of finding a group of 26 college students in bright yellow jerseys.

I left work under 90 degree weather and a relentless sun and drove an hour to their supposed evening stop. Despite asking around local stores and restaurants, no one had seen the group. I drove around to all the campgrounds in a 25-mile radius but still couldn’t find a congregation of college cyclists. Somewhat disappointed, I ended up at Early Winters Campground, the only camper for the night, and enjoyed an evening of reading, iPod music and a warm summer twilight.

I slept in, waking on the floor of my van in a nest of sheets and luggage. I had to continue on the highway to pick up some artwork from a show I had participated in earlier this summer, but still hoped I would catch the group on the highway when I returned. As I pulled out of the campground, I saw a yellow rider in my rear view mirror. Hmmm. A mile further, I saw two more. I couldn’t make out their jerseys, but hope quickly grew as I slowed down to meet the next pack of four riders.

“Excuse me, is this the Habitat Bike ride?”
“Holy crap! Is that Mike Liang! Oh my God, what are you doing here!?”

And just like that, I found Emily. In the middle of nowhere, 3,000 miles from home. I can’t even imagine her shock of seeing me appear completely out of the blue. I couldn’t have planned the encounter any better. And indeed, I hadn’t.

Right now, I’m in a café in Chelan, waiting for my artwork to arrive by ferry (it’s a long story). It’s been delayed 4 hours so I won’t be able to meet back up with the group until 9pm. But I’m undeterred. There’s nothing I can do to hurry the ferry ahead of schedule, so instead I’m catching up on e-mails, reading, grocery shopping, and trying to find a place to get an oil change.

I think “waiting” is an art that I’m sure I’ll perfect in Mali. For now, it’s just practice.