Serendipity -ﾠnoun - ﾠthe faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for or an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

First known use: 1754

The origin of serendipity is found in "The Three Princes of Serendip," a Persian fairy tale about three princes who had this ability.

One explanation of this phenomenon states that "good things will come to you in ways you could never anticipate or expect.ﾠ Yet, if you're constantly placing judgments, conditions and restrictions on your life, you'll miss out on most of those good things.

M. Scott Peck, M. D. takes this a step farther in his book, "The Road Less Traveled."

In a chapter titled "Grace" - The Miracle of Serendipity, Peck writes, "What we are talking of here in regard to paranormal events with beneficial consequences is the phenomenon of serendipity. Webster's Dictionary defines serendipity as "the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for."ﾠ There are several intriguing features to this definition.ﾠ One is the terming of serendipity as a gift, thereby implying that some people possess it while others don't, that some people are lucky and others are not.ﾠ It is a major thesis of this section that grace, manifested in part by "valuable or agreeable things not sought for," is available to everyone, but that while some take advantage of it, others do not... For the moment let me suggest that one of the reasons we fail to take full advantage of grace is that we are not fully aware of its presence - that is, we don't find valuable things not sought for, because we fail to appreciate the value of the gift when it is given us.ﾠ In other words, serendipitous events occur to all of us, but frequently we fail to recognize their serendipitous nature; we consider such events quite unremarkable, and consequently we fail to take full advantage of them."

Make desirable discoveries - pay attention to what's going on around you and for you.