Isle of Serendrip
For years, I have been imagining a community hub and coffee shop that I would one day call my own, and for as long, I have been coming up with naming options. My favorite word has always been “serendipity,” however, I had not thought to link it to my future space. It was not until a few months ago, when this project started to get real, that “serendripity spot” came to me during one of my mind-meandering bike rides. My partners and I agreed this was the name to describe this “whimsical undertaking.”
In the first few days of this year, “How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity” was published in the New York Times and the contents of it sealed the deal on my place-name because it introduced the idea that a “serendipitor” is a protagonist, practitioner, and encounterer, and it opened a way to talk about serendipitous people rather than just discoveries.
To me, serendipity describes the innate instinct of connection well before something is able to be explained or described. And it is how I like to think I go about things on my little island in the stream of life. I invite visitors to come ashore, and observe, share, and suggest right along with me; I like to get together with people, dig in, get involved, and unearth all sorts of stuff, even if it means getting dirty every once in a while.
Like the article says, some of the best ideas “emerge from spills, crashes, failed experiments and blind stabs.” I have been plodding forward, gathering ideas, kindred spirits, fits and start-ups, and new attachments, and I am now ready to open the doors of Serendripity Spot to see what might attract others. My hope is that I might learn “far more about the habits that transform a mistake into a breakthrough” and find new ways to build community.
…and so it seems I have taken a perfectly good word, mucked it up, and made coffee out of it.