Amazing

A discussion on the Scrap Pile Forum last night and this morning lead me to thinking about this thing we all take so for granted these days - I'm talking about the internet. There is a very nice lady on our forum who is in the process of arranging to move from the UK to Australia. She was lucky to stumble across Scrap Pile in her search for scrapbooking sites in Australia and had asked a few questions about her intended destination. Interestingly a short while later another young lady, from the very township she is moving to, joined the forum and now has been able to give her some valuable information about the town and even invite her to a scrapbooking group of ladies who meet on a regular basis.

It got me to thinking about the impact the internet has had on the world as a whole. I'm sure I can't imagine all the ways in which it has impacted, but thinking about this particular lady's situation, pre-internet she would have come here knowing no-one, had to find out a lot of the information she has now been given, after her arrival, and I can't imagine how daunting it would have been to uproot your family and move to a new country knowing NO-ONE. Not that we all really KNOW one another, but there is at least a sense of friendship and acceptance and knowing you have something in common with someone - at least it's a start towards something to build on.

Technology is an amazing thing really.

But I also got to thinking about how things in life just seem to fall in place. What are the chances with the hundreds of websites out there dedicated to scrapbooking in Australia that these two ladies should happen to join the same website. Given the township in question only has a population of less than 10,000. If it were Melbourne or Sydney - not so remarkable. But in the grand scheme of things, 10,000 people - how many scrapbookers would that be I wonder?

I often wonder about the concept of fate and whether things that happen are predestined or just random co-incidence. I've never been big on the idea of co-incidence. I've always believed that things happen for a reason, even if you can't see the reason at the time. But I have too many times had things happen that I just couldn't understand, but that some time down the track I have had an "ahh haaa" moment that leaves me in awe. Perhaps that is just a reflection of my personality - I don't know. But for my own preference I'd like to think that each of us have a purpose for being here in the grand scheme of things rather than just being random beings wandering through life with no real purpose other than getting to the other side as it were.

This thinking also lead me to wondering about the competition of last week as well. Why Me I wondered? Out of all the people who were entered to take part in it - why was I one of two selected? And why those particular challenges to partake? Especially the singing part which I haven't done publicly in so many years. I keep wondering if there is a message in it or if it's just one of those things you were meant to take part in for the experience. I know some of the benefits I have got from it already. Both in my own eyes and also in the eyes of those people important to me. It was incredible from the point of view of me realising I have the confidence to do such things, but it was also incredible to look into the eyes of the two people I love most and see how proud they were of me for doing it. Is that it? Is that the reward for the participation? Or is there a message there somewhere to say I'm not following the path I was supposed to?

As always I guess time will tell.........

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there. I was promised pancakes today - I was thinking breakfast but given someone was up pretty late last night on the computer - I'm thinking now it's likely pancakes will be for lunch instead.....