A Life Reset
Far from home, we sometimes discover that we need to stop and change everything — a life reset.
Somewhere along the way, you realize that the trip you are on is no longer just physical. It’s a journey of heart and soul, a gentle unfolding of self-discovery, a moment that shifts your perspective on everything that matters. It changes how you see yourself and ultimately how you see your life. It’s a threshold moment for what you choose next.
It can feel, in the most beautiful way, like emerging from a cold, dark cave into open air, the warmth of the sun suddenly on your skin, soft and welcoming. In that light, you can see how much beauty already surrounds you, and begin to sense how much more exists just beyond your view.
The gift of surprise
Serendipity lives in those moments when you slow down and let yourself truly see. Not just what is near you, but what lies outside your comfort zone, further along the horizon. When you open yourself up, setting fear aside, allowing yourself to feel your own vulnerability while surrendering to each moment as it arrives.
This becomes possible when we are willing to stop and explore more deeply. When something catches your eye from the road, something inviting, and instead of driving past, you find a place to turn back. You are rewarded with unexpected beauty. Or you take the smaller road. You pay attention to what looks too ordinary to matter. A tiny farm shop on the side of the road. A herd of sheep crossing the lane. Cows grazing along the edge of a single-track road. Mist that hides the sun and yet makes the whole landscape glow. These are the happy accidents that interrupt our autopilot and invite us back into wonder, contemplation, and presence
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Scotland, and the scent of something unexpected
In Scotland, we experienced quite a few of those small, pivotal moments. And one of the most delightful happy accidents arrived inside our rental car.
Mike was driving the entire time, navigating the left side of the road with remarkable ease. Every time we opened the windows, the air filled with a strong, beautiful scent of lavender. At first, it felt as though the countryside itself was perfuming our journey. The aroma rode the wind through the open windows, clearly present yet beautifully mysterious.
We had just come from hosting the Provence Gastronomad Experience and were carrying lavender oil with us, so eventually we understood: somewhere, somehow, lavender had made its presence known in the sweetest possible way. A tiny leak, a loose cap. We had not at that point identified the exact source, and the mystery became part of the magic.
The car turned into a moving refuge of mist and lavender. Narrow roads and wide views. Stone walls, ancient castles glimpsed in the distance, and unexpected sheep at every turn. Rather than treating the spill as a problem, we welcomed it as a gift.
Each drive became its own small reset: breathe deeper, notice more, soften into the present and into what lives in your heart. Feel the awe fully and let it guide your senses. A small happy accident had quietly deepened the enchantment of our days.
This is the art of serendipity, for me: letting small accidents become gentle invitations rather than inconveniences
Your own lavender spill
A life reset does not always announce itself dramatically. Sometimes it slips in quietly, as a scent on the wind, a wrong turn that becomes the best road, a moment that reminds you, gently but clearly, that you are allowed to live differently than you had planned.
Perhaps your own lavender spill is already happening somewhere in the background of your life.
It might be a small interruption you almost dismiss: a detour, a new acquaintance, a conversation you did not plan to have, a scent or sound that keeps softly insisting you pay attention. It might be the way a place you never intended to visit suddenly feels like exactly where you needed to be all along.
You might be standing in the middle of something unexpected, or something deeply painful, and still, somewhere beneath it, a silver lining is beginning to form. Or quietly waiting for you to notice it.
Your heart might feel broken right now. But not permanently. You will mend it, piece it back together, and because you have lived through that breaking, it will grow stronger, more resilient, and more tender than before. It will fill again with small things that suddenly feel enormous. Open yourself to them. Let the metaphorical scent of lavender find you. Breathe in deeply, and feel its warmth steady you with calm, clarity, compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, and yes, happiness and joy.
There is always a way to turn something difficult into something meaningful. But it asks something of you first: the willingness to look a little more deeply and to venture just a little further than comfort allows.
Our lavender spill was a delightful accident, and one I will never forget. It turned out that two small bottles had loose caps, and the lavender had slowly released into our luggage, quietly perfuming our car and our entire journey with the most wonderfully joyful aroma imaginable. (Pro tip: On the list of things that can spill in luggage, lavender oil is the best one!)
You do not have to overhaul your whole life to begin a reset. You can start with the smallest gesture of awareness: a new journey, a day of hiking, a grateful thank you for whatever has spilled into your path.
Sometimes it arrives as a devastating heartbreak. Sometimes it is the gentlest of accidents. But both, in their own way, can lead us slowly and kindly to the truest version of ourselves, and perhaps an even happier one than we thought possible.
And when they do, you will know exactly what to choose next.