Welcome to Root Words. I'm Michelle Root and on this podcast, we will embark on a journey of self-discovery while appreciating the complexities of language through etymology, the study of words.
Each episode, we will explore the origins of a specific word, how it can influence our spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
I want to help us dive into the intersections of language and life so we can contribute to a common understanding. Let's uncover the power of language together, one word at a time. This is Root Words.
Welcome back to Root Words. I'm Michelle Root and first and foremost, I just want to say I'm really grateful that you guys are joining me today on this episode.
I feel like it's just mind-blowing to know you guys could be anywhere else in the world right now and you're choosing to be with me and listen and grow and learn with me.
So from the bottom of my heart again, that means so much and thank you, thank you, thank you.
I hope you guys are doing okay in the beginning of this new calendar year. I know it's felt extremely intense to start off with.
I feel like in this episode, I wanted to provide a perspective that might help us to get through some of these rather difficult times. It can feel really impossible.
I actually know a lot of people that are going through extremely heavy things right now.
And I just wanted to give a heartfelt shout out to anybody that is struggling, anybody that is, you know, really going through it, experiencing trauma, experiencing pain,
just any type of thing that is just holding you in a place of fear or disrupting your life in any way.
I am genuinely sending my love and hope this episode today can provide a new perspective to help us kind of push through, not push through.
I don't like to negate feelings, but I really want more positive and beneficial ways to find the glimmers in life, find the hope anywhere we can.
Everything feels so damn heavy. And after a while, it is a lot to carry.
I was blessed with a really beautiful experience that allowed me to really reconnect with my soul, my purpose, what I feel I'm supposed to be doing in this life and just living in alignment with what I value, what my morals are, what my intention for my time here on this earth really is.
And it's important to me to speak to connect to find meaning in many things, no matter how big or small it is.
I will do anything at this point to keep my happiness ensure that those around me are loved and happy and fulfilled.
And if that's a small piece of what I can contribute to the world that I am very happy with that.
Today's word is perfect for cultivating a new sense of wonder and opportunity in a rather difficult existence.
So alongside you guys, I wanted to discover the meaning behind one of my most favorite words to say, and even more so to experience the word serendipity.
As defined by dictionary.com, serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
Miriam Websters identifies it as the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought after.
Grammarly.com and the rest of the world consider it one of the most beautiful words in all of the English language.
It can be considered to be more formal and posh in nature and is not usually utilized in everyday language.
It is found more so in literary works and in the United Kingdom. It was actually voted their favorite word in the year 2000.
Nonetheless, its impact is evident and worldwide.
The word itself has been uttered many times within literature, but often can be a concept that might feel elusive or confusing to some.
So let's talk about its origins and look at some examples of serendipity in action.
The word itself, as I said, has been uttered in many works of literature and even in the entertainment industry.
But the concept is is a little bit more than what I was expecting when doing research on this word.
I really wasn't aware of how fast the definition can go and how many things serendipity can be represented by.
So this has been a really fun episode to do research for because I thought I knew something and I really didn't.
So let's talk about its general meaning and origins.
So on January 28th, 1754, Horace Walpole coined the term after accidentally discovering a Giorgio Fasari painting
and while writing a letter to his friend, mentions the word serendipity to reference the discovery.
Walpole had identified the variation after reading The Three Princes of Serendip,
which is a fairy tale in which the heroes were always making discoveries by accident and sagacity of things they were not in quest of.
The word serendip is a corrupted form of Simha Dweepa, which is sand skirt for islands where the lions dwell.
One of the more fascinating facts about the word serendip is it's also the Perso-Arabic name of the country of Sri Lanka.
So I thought that was a really cool bit of information that had I not done this word and researched this, you know, for this episode, I wouldn't have never found that out.
I thought that was fascinating. I've never heard of a word in English that has related to a literal country, and I'm sure there's many, but I personally have never heard that.
So I thought that was very interesting to discover.
The word is also considered a neologism with no equivalent translation in other languages outside of English.
So I believe you would just say the word when translating from another language to English,
which was another interesting tidbit that I found about this word that made it so unique and just so interesting to research.
Now let's talk about some examples of serendipity to give us some context.
We can either experience it on a small personal scale or on the flip side, the large grand o scale that affects humanity as a whole.
Many scientific discoveries can be attributed to the occurrence of serendipitous influence.
One example is after contributing to the 17 year initial work of scientist Marcel Gley,
surgeon Frederick Banting's work of reproducing pancreatic secretions to balance out the effects of diabetes contributed to the creation of insulin.
Another example is Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin.
After leaving a stack of inoculated plates untouched on a bench for a month, mold began to form.
After more research, he was able to identify the mold as being deadly to the Staphylococcus bacteria, naming the antibody penicillin.
In addition to scientific discoveries, innovations and inventions are also a great example of how a serendipitous moment can change the trajectory of the person's life experiencing it.
And on a grander scale, society as a whole.
We can thank moments of serendipity for Post-it notes, the microwave, Teflon, Vaseline, Superglue, LSD, anesthesia, and Viagra to name a few.
Serendipity is something all human beings have experienced or benefited from at one time or another, whether we are aware of it or not.
I actually have very special memories of this word from my early childhood days when my mom had actually purchased the Serendipity Children's Book Series, which was created by Stephen Cosgrove in 1974.
Cosgrove himself stated that he created the book series after finding a lack of relatable children's books for his own child, and he found himself within an occurrence of serendipity.
A new project was inadvertently created out of his search for other books of substance, providing children everywhere with a new outlook on nature, environmental issues, and the animal kingdom.
I hold these special memories of my childhood close, and the stories told within the series always held a special place within my heart, so naturally the word itself stuck with me well into adulthood.
When viewed under a humanistic lens, the general vibe of the word paints a colorful, hopeful picture of possibilities unfolding somewhat with ease.
In reality, I feel a lot of us can be predisposed to holding pessimistic outlooks on life, so sometimes it feels easier to complain and find fault versus shifting our thoughts to a more positive and beneficial perspective.
It takes active effort sometimes to shift out of a less than desirable mentality. Finding the negative in solutions is not something I fault us for as a species, as I do that quite often.
While I try and be optimistic in most situations, I find myself going down the path of pessimism sometimes as it truly just feels easier, much like a default setting of sorts.
I often wonder if our brains are hardwired for finding the fault in things rather than focusing on that which works out in our favor.
Within a flawed fault, there is naturally room for improvement, whereas being in positivity and alignment can offer us nothing to essentially work on.
I know that's kind of crazy, but that's kind of just how I perceive it. Doesn't mean it's true, that's just how I understand it.
Humans are fixers and natural healers. We enjoy refining and improving things, so sometimes having nothing to fix can feel very unsettling.
Life can feel like a reel of highs and lows, and after being exposed to such rawness after a while, I feel like it's only natural to remain in a default setting of negativity or pessimism.
Again, not healthy, but that's why we're here, to figure out new ways to do things.
Honestly, it feels like sometimes what's the point of having expectations for a more hopeful outcome when life has essentially proven otherwise?
It can feel pointless and exhausting. But I want to offer you an alternative perspective to take away with you after this episode.
Can you imagine the impact that seeing glimmers of hope and positivity has on our life versus the triggers?
It may take some active effort on our part to unlearn this conditioning, but we have to acknowledge the beautiful moments with active intention, as it can be something we miss if not fully aware of its existence.
Try and not allow your life to be consumed by the negative. I promise you it's worth it. I know it's not always easy, and it does not come naturally by any means.
So let's talk about ways to identify moments of serendipity and how it can help us walk on a more positive path.
First, what events have you experienced in your life where serendipity occurred?
Identifying a serendipitous moment helps us realize the value of it.
Maybe you called it something else or identified it as a simple coincidence, but ultimately it can all fall under the same umbrella of unplanned positive occurrences.
It can be big or minute, but its impact matters in the moment.
That parking lot spot you found after circling for a short amount of time can be considered a serendipity.
The dollar you found on the ground after taking an unplanned walk down the street, also a form of serendipity.
Whether referring to the 2001 movie Serendipity where two lovers unite by happenstance or relating to its more formal context utilized in literature, you can imply the term to literally any moment in life where an unexpected glimmer of joy or luck is encountered by you.
Find yourself actively present in the moment you are experiencing and examine the value and positive influence it can have on your life.
It's rather simple to apply the term to many things once you're able to identify the moments and attach beneficial meaning to even the smallest of tasks and occurrences.
Now that we've identified what a serendipitous moment is, how do we utilize it?
As stated earlier, I don't believe that optimism comes naturally for some.
I feel like it's something we actively have to work on with intention.
I'll use a real life example to help convey what I'm trying to say here.
I am sitting here recording. My chair is uncomfortable. My back hurts. My dogs are snoring right next to me creating potential reverb in the microphone and I'm worrying about all kinds of things.
But as I look over at my window and I'm seeing the sunlight coming in, hitting the leaves of the beautiful plants that I have in the room with me,
I'm able to appreciate the fact that I have eyes to see, that I have animals that love me right next to me that would rather be nowhere else but beside me.
I'm finding the joy in the moment, the beauty of being alive and the experience of living and being able to see that while my back hurts and my dogs are loud,
I've found a beautiful moment of serendipity, of joy, of beauty, of love.
I'm able to integrate that into my experience and understand that despite the negatives that I might be experiencing, there's so many beautiful, amazing things that are also occurring at the same time.
I think it's important to differentiate though that I am never one to negate or invalidate negative situations or feelings. They're valid.
It's valid to feel frustrated, angry, hurt, upset, reactive to whatever is occurring in your life. It's completely human to feel those things.
I think where we fall into the trap is we get stuck in this cycle of negativity. We get stuck in the cycles of pain and it can be very, very hard to remove ourselves, as I said earlier.
So while serendipity itself is a noun, it can also be utilized as a verb, an action word of doing with intentional effort.
Find the serendipity. Find the serendipitous moment. Be serendipitous.
While doing research for this episode, I found a very thorough paper written by author Christian Busch titled, Towards a Theory of Serendipity, a systematic review and conceptualization.
Within it, Christian highlights the importance of differentiating serendipity versus luck.
Luck is passive in nature and requires little to no effort on the part of the individual.
Christian argues that chance and luck can be experienced with or without our efforts.
While alternatively, the act of serendipity requires the person to take action to obtain the benefit of the moment.
This further emphasizes my own perception of serendipity being an action verb.
We are active players in our reality, and when we assign value to things we experience, we can literally hold the reins to our own destiny.
Imagine if the creators of insulin and penicillin had never acted on their accidental discoveries.
Millions of people have benefited from their research, and without it, they might not even be here today.
Taking an unexpected moment of chance and applying action behind it to maximize its impact can change the trajectory of not only your life, but possibly others' lives as well.
Saying that out loud has me really reflecting on all the potential situations where I could have inadvertently changed the path of my own life.
I will always reference my time as a young teen mom because it was such a profound experience to go through.
Even now, some 30 years later, where I sit back and I really reflect on the impact that the moment I found out about my child at such a young age,
how big of an impact that made on me. And while using the word serendipity might be too flippant when associating it with the birth of a child and the creation of a child,
it truly was a serendipitous moment to learn about how differently my life was about to be.
And instead of finding despair and being overwhelmed and stressed, I'm not saying I wasn't all of those things, but instead of just being all those things,
I found joy and I connected to the new future that I was about to have.
I assigned purpose and meaning to my life where before I had none and now, you know, this unexpected situation truly changed my whole life and my outlook and helped me to find my own purpose.
I will always refer back to this monumental point in my life because it was one of the most powerful things that has ever happened to me to this day.
And while it may seem repetitive to hear that throughout some of these episodes, it's a very powerful frame of reference for me.
It was such a profound thing to occur. So I feel like when we share those moments with others really helps us to connect.
So I appreciate your understanding and patience, but I will always be proud of that moment in my life.
I will always reference my children as being one of the highlights and proudest things I've ever accomplished to this day.
And of course, children are their own beings. They accomplish their lives themselves.
But we as parents being able to reflect on their accomplishments, you can't help but instill a sense of pride within you.
It's just inevitable seeing your children flourish and grow. It's the most beautiful thing to experience.
So I hope that when I refer to that or other things you might hear on this podcast, you can apply that to your own personal situations and understand the perspective that I'm coming from.
So now that we understand the origins and definitions of the word serendipity, do you feel like you'll be more intentional in your discovery of it?
Can you see now how the universe or divinity or whatever you call it might align us in unexpected ways to our highest potential?
It can be challenging to feel as though nothing works out in our favor, but once the reality of our actions and intentions comes into play, I really feel like the possibilities are endless.
You have no idea what's waiting behind the door of your next steps in life.
To sum this all up, a quote by Audrey Morales really hit home for me.
She states, serendipity is not the product of patience. It's the product of action.
So while serendipity is a noun, it is up to us to find the joy, the purpose, and the meaning behind it.
I want to thank you again from the bottom of my heart for joining me today on this episode of Root Words.
I hope I've contributed to helping you uncover unexpected opportunities, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the serendipitous moments in your life.
You can join the discussion on this word and any others I've covered in the Root Words podcast Facebook group and also on Instagram under Root Words podcast.
You can also send me your word suggestions to rootwordspodcast.gmail.com for future episodes.
This episode was about personal growth and reflection, whereas in our next episode, we will learn healthy self-sovereignty and electric boundaries with our next word, resist.
Whether it be a personal relationship or ever-changing political landscape, standing on business and principles defines our morality and values, which ultimately determines our character.
Thanks again for joining me today. I'm Michelle Root, and this is Root Words.
Thank you.