By Louie Ferrera

So, the other day I’m driving west on rural Hwy 12 towards the Sonoma coast just outside the little town of Bodega.The lush green hillside is dotted with grazing cows, the road slick from last night’s rain. It’s clear, dry and sunny, a rare occurrence these past couple of weeks due to the various “atmospheric rivers” we’ve been inundated by. I crest a hill and notice that a hundred yards or so ahead that a car is just stopped, right in the middle of the road. I see a woman emerge from behind this car running towards me, frantically chasing a large, shaggy white dog that’s trotting just beyond her reach. The closer they get to me the more I can see that this woman is in a panic. I stop my car, roll down my window and begin to gently tap the side of my car, calling the dog over. It comes right up to my window and stops. I grab ahold of its’ collar and speak quietly to it as the woman arrives. She is red in the face, out of breath and crying. She attaches a rope to the dog’s collar (his name is Bear) and tells me that she lives on a nearby farm and had been chasing him “for hours”.  She thanks me effusively. I just look at her and say, “I’m supposed to be here.” I roll up my window and drive on to the coast.

Was I really supposed to be there right at that very moment to rescue this poor woman’s dog? Is the concept of destiny real? Are certain chance encounters with other people preordained? Do some thing happen “for a reason”? Sometimes I believe that all of the above are true. My experience today with this woman and her dog did have the feel of destiny. How many other people would have even bothered to stop? To call the dog over? To even attempt to help? Maybe if I don’t appear at that exact moment, Bear or her owner gets hit by a car? I’ll never know what could have happened, only what actually did happen. These two were reunited safely because I was there to make it happen.

My experience today was an overt example of an event that seemed destined to occur. But sometimes strange and unexplainable things happen to us and we’re just not aware of their importance, or at least not aware at the time. In 1985 I was at a Grateful Dead concert outside Denver, Colorado and took a random photograph of a beautiful, smiling woman in the crowd. After snapping the photo I didn’t give it another thought until I ran into that same woman a couple of months later at another Dead show, this time in California. She and I would go on to have an eight year relationship. We remain dear friends to this day. That chance encounter turned out to be one of the most important events of my life, opening doors to people and experiences that most likely never would have happened, all because of the random click of my Minolta’s shutter. Frankly, I can’t imagine where I’d be and what my life would be like had I never taken that photo. Destiny? No question! So I say to you; keep your eyes open to the mystery, be aware and take part in life. Your destiny could be waiting.