The other day on Quora, someone directly asked me to answer the question: Have you ever felt something happened in your life for a reason?”  Here is my answer. 

I think everything that has happened in my entire life has happened not just for one reason —BUT for many reasons. CERTAINLY — I did not always know and certainly didn’t BELIEVE that there was a reason when some things were happening whether good or bad, happy or sad. BUT, now that I’m 62, I have plenty of good, bad and ugly experiences and situations to look back on. AND, I can clearly see that everything that happened, happened for a reason.

Each event, person or situation somehow led me to the next adventure…and lesson. And somehow, I now realize that all the disconnected events of my life weren’t so disconnected at all in retrospect: They actually all tie together. More so, with each challenge I learned; got stronger; smarter; met new friends; moved on from others that maybe didn’t fit my level of maturity (or lack of) or my self-understanding at that time; began to get that understanding of myself and my motivations in a deeper way (an important part of self-reflection and personal growth if we’re being honest with ourselves); developed greater patience and acceptance of others; became more intelligent and maybe even wiser; started understanding the impact of emotions — and that they can go way up and down and that we shouldn’t act on those feelings in the middle of a storm unless our safety depends on it; and, that sometimes it was time to change the road I was on — though even with that, I learned to not quit my day job for a day dream until I had worked hard enough on my day dream to make it my new reality.

So, yes, I do believe things happen for a reason. I believe everything happens for a reason. I also believe sometimes $&!T happens…but it still makes us stronger…and maybe that’s the reason. Peace and Love.