Gaps in the causal chain

Because I happened to be at the right place at the right time--except "happened" doesn't quite capture the moment. I had to be at just that spot, despite the persistent drippy rain.

Why? Because daffodils grow just there, on the hillside beside the driveway. 

Why? Because the woman who lived here for four decades planted them, and because they've been left alone to naturalize and spread, and because deer don't eat daffodils.

But why did I have to be there? 

Because it's Easter and I'm baking a ham--me! A ham! I never bake ham! But it's too cold and wet to grill lambchops, so ham it is, with asparagus and rice and angel-food cake with fruit, and a meal like that deserves daffodils in a vase on the table. And so I went outside to cut some.

Why? I never remember to cut flowers for the table! But my adorable daughter knows how to bring beauty into any situation (Why? It's a mystery), and so she grows lovely lilies and daffodils and foxgloves and then cuts some of them to take inside her house and arrange in vases, and when she's here she can be counted on to find something beautiful to cut and arrange for a centerpiece.

But she's not here today and no one else will think about cutting flowers unless I do it. So when I drove up the driveway after church and saw the daffodils, I had to grab some scissors and go right out there in the rain.

And so I happened to be standing at the right place at the right time when the pileated woodpeckers swooped past, a pair of them, so close I could have reached out and touched them. But I didn't.

Why? Because I didn't want to drop the daffodils.