It’s My Lucky Day

I have always been ambivalent about the idea of “luck.” Like Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, I find the well-meaning phrase, “good luck!” delivered before an endeavour has begun to be depressing. On the other hand, whenever a little piece of luck comes and enters my day, I find it uplifting. Especially now. Furthermore, I have always possessed a healthy dose of superstition and have engaged in many luck-bringing rituals, including picking up my own share of lucky pennies.

I am definitely someone who experiences luck on a regular basis. I often forget that of course, and have wasted much time bemoaning my lot in life but instinctively, I do know that I have been lucky. Since I received the lucky penny, I have been pondering the role that luck has played and I realize that there has been a heck of a lot of it in the past six weeks. In fact, I am a wee bit hesitant to let the trusty penny go for fear that my good fortune will go with it. I carry it with me most days – including to a job interview today – and have got used to digging into my bag and giving it a little rattle in its plastic case. However, I think that what its arrival has done, is to allow me to recognize, acknowledge and appreciate the luck that comes my way on a daily basis.

Since a good friend passed along the penny to me, what I have noticed most about my luck is that it is associated with the people in my life. I was sick for quite a long time before I was lucky enough to receive treatment in one of the best facilities in North America. When I returned home, a little over three months later, friends, family and former colleagues gave me, and continue to give me, support, encouragement and love. I am lucky enough to have the most amazing health care professionals whom I see weekly and I am fortunate to have former supervisors who will give me good references for future jobs. I am also fortunate to live in a small, caring community but I am also lucky to have loved ones who care about me, scattered all over the world. And, I am truly blessed to have an understanding and compassionate husband who is still willing to share love and laughter with me.

However, what is most striking to me, what is most profound, is that quite simply, I am lucky to be here, right now. I know that that sounds SO clichéd – which is not what I want at all; I want to sound unique and original, of course. But…. there is no other way to describe how I feel since I have been home. Everyday, I embrace moments where I feel, truly feel in my heart, my good fortune and I try to honour those moments. I think that in the past, I have been as much afraid of good luck as I have been of bad. Somewhere along the line I let myself believe that I did not deserve good luck and if I did get it, it wouldn’t be around for long. I cannot measure luck but I do know that in any given day - even in any given hour - there are usually more lucky moments for me than there are not: from finding a parking meter with time on it, to getting a wonderful e-mail from a friend; from discovering a forgotten family photo in an old box of junk which I was just about to throw out, to getting a surprise gift from a nearly forgotten friend; from missing a sudden downpour the day I didn’t take my umbrella, to finding a shiny lucky penny in the street¼.. Luck, like something else that begins with the letter, “L,” is all around us.

Suna Houghton Mooney
Charlottetown, PEI
August 2004

Nina W’s luck journal

I’d like to preface my weeklong lucky penny journal, by saying that I do believe that some people are inherently lucky. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. When I was little, I believed that when you found a penny, you picked it up and that all day long you’d have good luck. Then one day (I remember it clearly), a cynical adult forever changed my interpretation of finding a penny. The jaded version is: “Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you have a penny.” Therefore, depending on my mood I vacillate between the lucky and cynical versions of finding a penny. And so begins my “lucky” penny journal…

Monday June 21, 2004

I’m presently looking for a job. However, no luck on the job front today.
Didn’t get a ticket for my overdue parking meter.

Tuesday June 22, 2004

Lovely day outside. Went for a jog without wearing my glasses or contact lenses (which I normally wear), figuring that I wouldn’t run into anyone that I knew or that anyone would stop me on the street. But as Murphy’s law dictates, a car pulled up alongside me and the person inside asked for directions… And a guy at a construction site attempted to make conversation as I was jogging by. Made polite small talk with the blurry figure as I jogged away.

Wednesday June 23, 2004

Went to the hardware store to make a second copy of a house key. After getting the copy made, I lost the original key in my car. After a few expletives of frustration, I eventually found the original. (Not sure if it was due to the lucky penny or the expletives.)

Thursday June 24, 2004

A friend that I’ve been playing telephone tag with for months and who I haven’t spoken to in 6 months called today! He called me in the middle of the day so it was “lucky” that I was home. Unfortunately, our interesting and humourous exchange had to be cut short because my mother’s dog, Coco, decided to escape from the back garden and run off to god-knows-where. With visions of her being hit by a truck, I drove around the neigbourhood to see if could find Coco, an oversized Jack Russell terrier on greyhound legs. The drive around the neighbourhood proved fruitless, but the call to the local animal shelter proved fruitful. A conscientious citizen had taken Coco to the shelter. So all within a 30 minute period Coco was lost and then she was found. Tragedy and disaster averted. Was it the lucky penny? I wonder…

Friday, June 25, 2004

Had the house to myself this weekend. Unfortunately, the TV was on the fritz and the tv remote wouldn’t change the channels.
Was lucky enough to be offered part-time work.

Saturday June 26, 2004

Made a conscientious effort to do some housecleaning. However, this effort resulted in a smoking and disabled hoover – as a consequence of a carpet strand which got caught in the inner workings of the hoover.

Sunday June 27, 2004

Had a blast from my recent past. A friend from my recent home of Prince Edward Island was visiting the Niagara area and called me up. Met for a couple hours and reminisced about the carefree life in Prince Edward Island.