Synchronicity and Purpose

It's funny how certain stories, songs and dreams stick with me over the years and continue to guide and inspire. One such story is from a book called "Tales of the Dervishes: Teaching Stories of the Sufi Masters Over the Past Thousand Years," by Idries Shah. (See Amazon.com link below.) The story is Fatima, the Spinner and the Tent, a tale of a woman who underwent many unplanned changes in her life, tragedies really, and yet went on to fulfill a historic destiny.

Fatima was the daughter of a prosperous spinner, whose father taught her his trade and took her on business trips in the hopes she'd find a wealthy husband. Tragedy struck when she was shipwrecked, during her travels and her father was killed. She was tossed ashore in Alexandria.

Fortunately, she was taken in by a family of cloth-makers, who also taught her their craft and treated her like one of their own. Unfortunately, one day while strolling by the seashore, she was kidnapped by some slave-traders, taken away and sold to another country.

Fortunately, she was purchased by a man looking for a handmaid for his wife. This man built ship's masts. When he hit a spell of bad luck, Fatima was enlisted to learn this new trade. Again, his business grew and prospered, so he sent Fatima to Java to sell his wares for a profit.

Guess what happened! Off the coast of China the ship sank in a typhoon. I underlined this sentence: "Once again she wept bitterly, for she felt like nothing in her life was working in accordance with expectations. Whenever things seemed to be going well, something came and destroyed all her hopes."

Well, what Fatima didn't know is that there was a legend in China that a woman, a stranger, would come who would make tents for the Emperor. One day the call went out through China to see if this woman had arrived. It just so happened that was the day Fatima had arrived.

So she was summoned before the Emperor and asked if she could make a tent. Since there was no rope, she had to spin some. Since there was no canvas, she had to weave some. Since there were no tent poles, she had to make some. Then wracking her brain for the memories of all the tents she's seen in her travels, she designed one.

When this wonder was revealed the Emperor gladly granted her any wish she wanted. She chose to remain in China and married a handsome prince, of course!

"It was through these adventures that Fatima realized that what appeared to be an unpleasant experience at the time, turned out to be an essential part of the making of her ultimate happiness."

Wow! I take heart from that.

What unexpected twists and turns in your life took you down the "road less traveled" and made all the difference?

Annette Vaillancourt, Ph.D. - Corporate Trainer and Motivational Speaker
EnterTraining Seminars: "We Learn You Good!"
Peak Performance, Stress in the Workplace, Conflict Resolution and Communication Skills
1-877-549-7681

Oh, here's the book containing the story and many other great teaching stories from the Sufis!