It's all right!

My happiness and my function are one.
Lesson 66 ACIM

Okay...I am going to talk a little bit about serendipity and purpose. 

I have been playing and thinking about Tom Petty  for weeks.  And I am not one to play a lot of music. Nor do I tend to be star struck and obsessive about musicians but for some reason I was thinking about Tom Petty an awful lot lately.

Now don't get me wrong...I love his music.   I often have my Sirius set at the Tom Petty's station for nostalgic reasons. (As a fitness instructor back in the day, I led an aerobics class and I filled my tapes with the heartbreakers' and the Travelling Wilburys' music.  It always uplifted me so I could uplift others.)

One day, about two weeks ago, I heard a Travelling Wilbury's song  and it stuck in my head.
So  I go around the house repeating the chorus of this song for days.

Then I come across the  George Harrison documentary on Netflix last week and he, of course, was a Wilbury. In the doc they showed them producing this song.

They also show clips from an interview with  Tom Petty as he  explained how the Wilburys began.

So I am even more in tune to the music  after watching that.  I find myself cranking up my radio as the songs come on all stations, it seems, over and over again.

Before I leave for Toronto I have this great inclination to find some of Petty's lyrics and use them for my entry.  I used Wildflowers  because it seemed to fit with where I was at. 

Even in TO I had a conversation with someone about how much I liked Tom Petty.  ( I usually do not talk about musicians to others).  I mentioned how I envied the fact that he was a man who knew happiness when he was doing what he loved to do, when he was following his purpose. He in a sense did not only inspire me to inspire others in the aerobic classes I led but he also inspired me to write.  I seen this young man from a small town in Florida do what he loved to do and though stardom is not the perfect life by any means...one could tell by watching him perform and by his lyrics he was happiest simply doing what he was here to do. 

I realized that when I want to write...I often turn his music on.

Then sadly... I find out yesterday that he passed. 

What I kept hearing and reading was : Petty died at 66. I kept saying to myself 66?  66? 

This morning I wake up  and amongst the thoughts that popped into my head I am thinking about Tom Petty dying at 66. 

So I go to open up the ACIM text to a random page, as I sometimes do, for a few words to inspire me and set me off for the day...I am "coincidently" thinking about Tom Petty dying at the age of 66
 as the book opens.

Without any conscious intention, I open it up to the above lesson...lesson 66.

And I knew as I sat there looking down at the page that I was experiencing serendipity. What was the lesson about?  The connection between purpose and happiness.

There has to be something to learn from that, doesn't there?  There has to be something to learn from Petty's life and music, his being on purpose?

There has to be something to learn from serendipity? Maybe all this is more than just a series of kooky and not so kooky coincidences that people like me make too much of?  Maybe all these little events that happen in life are leading us somewhere ?  Maybe I was meant to open up to that page because of the wisdom in it?

Maybe we are all meant to follow our bliss as Campbell said and Petty did...that is where we will find our purpose?  I know yesterday after hearing the news I was inspired to get back to some books I had written to re-edit them  for submission again.

There is something to learn from these lyrics that were written by a serendipitous meeting of musicians who formed a band serendipitously all because they  found their happiness simply  making music? That music is used by others for the same reason.

Well it's all right, even if you're old and gray
Well it's all right, you still got something to say
Well it's all right, remember to live and let live
Well it's all right, the best you can do is forgive

retrieved from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/travelingwilburys/endoftheline.html

It's all good...heck..."it's all right!"