random or reasoned?

I'm bumpity-bumping through this weekend, thinking over and over: is this random or do things happen for a reason?

Friday morning at 6:30 I had finished my breakfast. The dog was lying under the dining room table making appealing and sympathetic noises. I bent down to pet her and whacked my head on the computer desk in the corner. I saw stars for a minute, then I realised I had split the skin on my brow. I cleaned it up and hitched the sides of the cut together with a bandaid. I saw the family doctor a couple of hours later. He said that it was healing already and didn't need stitches - just taped it up with some steri-strips that will come off in a couple days and I should be good as new. I felt embarassed for my carelessness, relieved it wasn't worse (thank goodness for brow bones or I would have damaged my eye most likely) and also annoyed that I missed my morning workout because I had to go to the doctor's office instead.

A friend of mine whacked her van into a couple of those yellow posts in a parking lot the other day. As she drove home she noticed that one of the wheels was making a strange noise. It turns out that the axle was bent in two places as a result of what seemed like a minor, low-speed jolt. Repairs are in the works (luckily her husband can do the work, and has found most of the parts at good prices). The van should be in good shape in time for their departure on a lengthy road trip coming up in a few weeks.

So were these random bits of bad luck? Or relatively minor incidents that happened in order to jolt us off a track that might have led to worse? Of course it's rare that we ever know for sure, but I tend to believe the latter. What if that axle had failed while they were driving through the rockies? What if Friday was the day that I would have hurt myself at the gym? Whether or not God or fate or some other force plays a hand in these events, I'm always grateful when they happen in recoverable ways. I didn't split my head open on the picnic table while we were camping in the woods somewhere. The van got damaged a few blocks from home. Recovery is safe and easy. I think of these as happy mishaps. We all fall down. It is fortunate when we fall into soft arms.

question: reason or random?

mompoet - pondering