I have been thinking a lot about the idea of "luck" recently.
One of my best friends will say that she is very lucky.This is said humbly and without bragging.She just knows that she is a lucky person and that good things happen to her.I really like this about her.The luck that she talks about isn't about big-ticket items, but about the regular stuff that happens in daily life.
For instance, she has lake property and there were forest fires last summer that threatened their property. I asked her if she was worried about it and she told me no, because she's lucky.If, in the past, she's gotten laid off work, she shrugs it off and isn't worried about it because she's lucky and will find something else.It's nice.
As a person who used to view myself as lucky, it's been really nice to be around someone who's world view is largely positive.Somewhere in the uncertainty of moving from Victoria to Prince George, moving in to my parent's house as an adult with my husband and dog in tow (for much longer than we anticipated), not having a steady job and rebuilding a life in a much smaller town, I lost the opinion, my certainty, that I too, am lucky.
In a recent spate of navel-gazing with the encroachment of my thirty-fourth birthday, I realized that I forgot this. I used to know that I am inherently a lucky person.
For most of my life, I have known that I'm lucky for a few reasons.The most compelling reason, is that I win door prizes. I may not win the best door prize, but usually I win something pretty good and I'm happy about winning.
The first door prize I remember winning was a random-draw contest for a "cool" new digital Klondike Bar watch when I was in elementary school. I very carefully filled in my name and phone number at a gas station out of town and entered into the cardboard ballot box. In retrospect, the watch wasn't all that cool and likely they just wanted my mom's phone number to sell to a survey company.However, I won and it was wonderful.
At sports tournaments, I was a regular at the door prize table and, as an adult, I kill it at Christmas parties, often winning presents to give.When my husband and I lived in Wells, when we worked in Barkerville, there would be (and still are) monthly bingo games as fundraisers for charities and projects around town.The prizes for a Good Bingo were homemade goodies, edibles and crafts and it was amazing.Someone at our table would always win and there was one memorable bingo game when our table brought home five pies, and a dozen cookies, and some beautifully knitted scarfs. We were so lucky, other people were mad.
So I propose to readers to find your own lucky.Maybe you're the person that always finds money on the street.Maybe, like me, you win mid-range door prizes.
There is an expectation sometimes that to consider yourself lucky, you have to win the lottery. And although that would be nice, luck isn't always big.You can be lucky in that people are kind to you.
Be lucky for someone today.
Maybe, bring pie.
