Serendipity at Panera

Panera isn’t known for life lessons.
It’s known for coffee refills, baguettes, soup in bread bowls, and a reliable place to sit and talk for a while.

And yet, that’s exactly where serendipity found me.

Many years ago, I sat at Panera with my teaching colleagues after a Target run on Madison’s east side, spending our yearly classroom budget money. The best kind of shopping—the kind that delivers a dopamine rush without touching your own wallet.

At that point in my life, I didn’t have children yet. Craig and I hadn’t adopted our kids. Life felt full, but uncomplicated in ways I wouldn’t recognize until later.

I remember the table clearly: a booth to the left of the counter,  near the windows. I almost certainly ordered coffee, a salad, and a baguette—my Panera standard then and now. We talked and laughed, enjoying the easy camaraderie that comes from shared work and a rare pause in the school-year grind.

At the table beside us sat a mother and her young daughter, maybe four years old. I noticed them only in passing—until I heard it.

The sharp intake of a child’s breath.

The little girl had knocked over her plastic cup of milk.

Milk spread across the table and edged toward the floor. The mother reached immediately for napkins from the dispenser and began wiping it up. What caught my attention wasn’t the spill itself. It was what came next.

Her voice stayed calm. Steady. Almost reassuring.

She said,
“Life is full of messes. Let’s clean it up.”

In that ordinary moment—surrounded by paper napkins, plastic cups, and the low hum of lunchtime chatter—serendipity slipped in quietly. A profound life lesson arrived in the most mundane place, at the most unexpected time.

No sigh followed her words. No frustration or embarrassment. Just truth, spoken gently, and an invitation to face the mess together.

Does it get any more profound than that?

I’ve carried the image of that mother and child with me ever since. That single sentence has followed me through marriage, parenting, work stress, and all the seasons when life feels heavier than expected. Again and again, serendipity has brought that moment back to me—usually when I needed it most.

Life is full of messes.
That part is unavoidable.

But so is this:
We can clean it up.
Together.

And sometimes, the lesson arrives quietly—between sips of coffee, crumbs of bread, and a stack of paper napkins—right where you least expect it.

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