Was I Meant to Be There?
Yesterday started like any ordinary Saturday on a long bank holiday weekend in Ireland. The charity shop closed early, and I stopped at the petrol station for milk. Simple, right?
I’ve known the lady behind the counter for a few years. We usually share a quick laugh or some small talk. Today, she mentioned she had donations for the charity shop, and I told her to bring them in. That could’ve been the end of it. But it wasn’t.
What started as a two-minute chat became an hour-long conversation, a story spilling out in pieces, heavy with pain, loss, and struggles most of us never see. The kind of story that sits behind a smile at work, behind a casual “How’s your day?”
And here’s what struck me: so much of what she said mirrored my own life in ways that sent shivers down my spine. Different details, same wounds. Same questions. Same ache.
As she spoke, something inside me whispered, You were meant to hear this.
Was I? Was I meant to be in that exact place, at that exact time, with milk on my mind, and instead walk into a conversation that cracked both our hearts open a little?
Maybe it wasn’t about answers. Maybe it was about presence, being the ear she needed, in that moment, without judgment, without rushing. Maybe it was about reminding both of us that we are never as alone as we think.
I left the petrol station an hour later carrying more than milk. I had her story, and I took this thought: Sometimes life orchestrates what we call “coincidences” for reasons we can’t fully understand.
And maybe that’s okay.
Mae 🧡
UNDER THE WILL... OVER THE DRAMA... 
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