You may be saying to yourself, “Effect and cause? It should be cause and effect!” Most things in our lives follow a cause and effect relationship. We experience day and night. The cause? Earth’s rotation around the sun. The effect? A repeating pattern where day turns into night and back into day again. We see and feel stormy weather. The cause? Dark rain clouds and atmospheric humidity. The effect? Thunder, lightning, and rain.

One thing leads to another. But if you look at the larger picture of life, it’s not cause and effect—that’s a tried and true pattern based on the past. It’s effect and cause, which is based on the future. Imagine you’re walking down the street and you bump into a person that sparks your interest. There is a reason for that encounter. Every person you meet is an effect, or a result of an experience—not a cause. You met that person for a reason. What is the reason, or the cause, for having that person in your life? People come in and out of your life all the time. Every single one of those encounters is necessary. You never meet someone that isn’t necessary.

So take a few minutes and think back to a “chance” encounter. Why did you meet that person at that specific time and place? Did meeting this person cause something to happen in your life? Now imagine the scenario had been different. Imagine that this “chance” encounter happened at a different time and place. Might the cause of the meeting have changed?

If we begin to think this way, we see that everything in life has a reason and a purpose. And in making that realization, we begin to understand that trying to control life events is meaningless. Once we begin to let go, we can truly be free and become open to the endless possibilities that surround us.