The Butterfly Effect. “A small change in the initial conditions of a complex system can lead to large, unexpected and magnificent outcomes.” Originally discovered by mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz, this phenomenon gives the term “everything happens for a reason” a solid scientific basis.
Do you ever wonder what direction your life might have taken if you didn’t sleep past your alarm that one morning or decided to try a different coffee shop? Or if you didn’t sit at that specific desk or forced yourself to build up the courage to talk to that stranger? What if you didn’t take that one tiny decision that rippled through time and space– quite literally altering your fate? If you really sit and think about it, it’s a terrifying thought. That one single decision we make at every moment has an infinite number of outcomes. In a way, it does give us some control over how our lives unfold —but it’s important not to obsess over this fact. Usually, the “unexpected and magnificent” outcome is one we often can’t see until we look back and reflect on the events in our lives. You can’t necessarily calculate these things or predict them; they simply just are. It’s a bit annoying that we have control over each minuscule decision yet no control in how that plays out.
When I think back on my life, I can see how some of my decisions unfolded, and for the most part, I’m extremely grateful that they worked in my favour, and for the difficult circumstances– I believe that they, too, will reveal themselves as a blessing I’m not yet able to see. I guess this is the point where the scientific reasoning becomes spiritual. When you believe that nothing is truly bad, its purpose just hasn’t been revealed to you yet. It’s a bit like hope.
The people we meet in our lives aren’t always meant to stay. Sometimes they simply just pass through to show us the way back to ourselves. Maybe you meet them when you need them the most, and it’s something beautiful. Maybe it leaves you when you need them most. Perhaps, it comes back to you in a way you could have never imagined. We try so hard to control our fates–to play God with the outcomes of our situations. But what if the kindest thing we could do for ourselves was to let go? To let go of the expectations. To let go of the things we so desperately cling to–even when the kinder thing would be to let them free? It’s so easy to get caught up in the what-ifs. What if I did this differently? What if I had never met them? What if I had never said that? What if I just tried a little harder?
But the truth is, your mind could think up a never-ending stream of possibilities–all of which you could never control or predict. I met some of the best people in my life “accidentally” or by being somewhere I decided to be on a whim. I used to be someone who became paralyzed when faced with the smallest of decisions, fearing that I might regret the outcome. But truly looking back, the only thing I really ever regret is letting that fear control me. It’s easy to fall into the spiral of indecision, but as someone very wise told me, “Don’t make the right decision, make the decision right.”