Thoughts on Luck, and other lucky thoughts

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and a rather glorious one at that. The sun is shining bright, warming the air outside. Windows are thrown open infusing the apartment air with springtime smells. A smile snakes across my face, stretching to the limits. My thoughts scatter across the computer screen; eight tabs sit waiting for me to come back to them as I race along following the links whimsically. Today is not a day for concentration, but for playing in corn fields and chasing butterflies across the sky. I skip along, humming, stopping to talk to trees awaking from their wintery slumber.

Today I am lucky because I am free to do so.

Today is a day of luck—fields of lush green clovers, the four-leafed kind tucked safely away from gluttonous fingers, and leprechauns with their overflowing golden pots held tightly against chests taking refuge under the canopy. And today my mind turns over the concept of luck. Chance, serendipity, fate? Nay, luck is perspective, appearing before your eyes if you choose to see it.

On this day of luck, with clovers dancing in pub windows, I take stock.

I am lucky for this viewpoint, to recognize my luck, to give thanks every time my mind is clear enough to see it. I am lucky to have the breath in my lungs that pulls in the positive and pushes out the negative, fueling my fire. I am lucky to have the heart that beats in my chest, nourishing my physical body, and carrying love for all things around me. I am lucky to have my fabulous blender with all its gadgets and attachments with which to make my morning shake and weekly batch of hummus. I am lucky to have a computer, despite the crashes and other annoyances, for it is my vehicle for sharing. I am lucky to have people on the other end of these ramblings, and that they, in turn, are receptive. I am lucky to receive their love and support everyday from all directions, especially those unexpected. I am lucky to have ears that hears these songs and a voice with which to answer their call. I am lucky that I have the freedom to change my mind and the course of my path. I am lucky to feel excitement about what tomorrow will bring. I am lucky to have a mind that wanders in all directions, that is attentive enough to support these different thoughts, and the knowledge that it will eventually be pieced together. I am lucky to have unending curiosity that brings me to all of life’s little adventures, and an ego small enough to learn from them always. I am lucky to have hindsight in all its 20/20 glory to remind me of life’s lessons, when I didn’t pay attention the first go-round. I am lucky for a roof and four walls to house me and my kitty, to shelter us from frigid wintery nights and wet springtime days. I am lucky to have warm arms that wrap around me, offering comfort and reinforcement. I am lucky to have this strong couch to rest my often weary body on. I am lucky to have been kissed, deeply and without reserve. I am lucky to have kissed back. I am lucky to have found my frogs, each one bringing me that much closer, and each one far less poisonous than the last. I am lucky to have traveled down a rocky road, without which I never would have found that strength in my legs to carry me forward. I am lucky to have found my resolve. I am lucky in knowing that I will not settle. I am lucky to have dreams to cling to at night. I am lucky to find the words to express this and so much more.

For this, and everything else that sits hidden in the nooks and crannies of my mind, I am lucky.