Serenidipity usually strikes when we least expect it, but perhaps when we're most open to receiving it. In the present case, I was rushing to the center of Tianan'men Square in Beijing earlier last evening to rendezvous for the first time with a French photography friend whom I had only known through Pbase, Nico Tao. We got our messages mixed up, and while I rushed over to the Square, Nico awaited me patiently for over 90 minutes back at my Xicheng district hotel.

Not realizing we'd crossed paths, I rushed over to Tianan'men and waited amidst mothers and children flying their kites and incessant hawkers plying their wares upon me. Serendipity then arrived in the guise of this lovely young art student from Szechuan province who struck up a conversation with me and told me about the paintings she had done, inviting me to go see them, just on the other side of Tianan'men from the Great Hall of the People.

Sensing my new acquaintance wasn't up to some perfidy, and basking in her warmth and beauty, I accompanied her inside the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, across the Square. Breezing past the lone guard with nary a cross word or look, we ascended a flight of stairs to a small, quiet gallery filled with a dozen other tourists similarly cajoled in for a look, at art which was surprisingly fine, given the students producing it. Ultimately, I allowed myself to be talked into purchasing a narrow scroll of an iris - denoting dilligence & success - making mental note to present it as a gift to friends back in New Jersey for their new daughter, who had been born just as I began this journey to China. Nina told me that my payment of 300 RMB yuan was contributing towards the cost of her tuition, an added bonus.

May the serendipity of this chance meeting in this plaza stilborn with freedom of speech, bring diligence & success to a little girl new to the world 10,000 miles away who will receive the blessings from the gate of heavenly peace.