I Am So Lucky
How lucky are you?
178. In the year 2021, I found 178 four-to-seven leafed clovers. My individual records are 56 in one day found and eight days in a row found. This is not the first time I have found four-leafed clovers, but this is the first year I have ever found them in such abundance. This is the first stretch of time I ever took time to actively seek them out. I think after the last two years the world had given all of us, it was nice to have a bit of good luck.
I always considered myself a fairly lucky person. Even when something bad happened to me, it happened under good circumstances. When my car died, it happened a block from my house in front of the garage I would take it to anyways before my day off. When my appendix ruptured at 17, leaving me in the hospital for six days, it happened a week before school started, giving me some much needed rest from my summer job.
When I have good luck, it's even better. I can get a good parking spot in a mall anytime I want. I can find highly valuable items at the thrift store.
I did a little research and I found the goddess Fortuna. Fortuna is the ancient Roman goddess of luck and fortune. She is depicted as blind(folded) with a cornucopia to depict generosity. She is described as the personification of events of capriciousness, fickleness, and virtue.
What does all this mean?
I knew my ability to find clovers and spot things was more than a skill learned from "I Spy" and "Where's Waldo" books, this was a gift. This was a gift given to me that was meant to be given away. I had some older four-leafed clovers collected from years past and with some of the early clovers I collected early 2021; it was time to share my gift. I offered up my four-leafed clovers to my friends on Facebook. All they had to do was give me their address. I sent around 20 in March and April to friends across the country. Some I hadn't spoken to since high school, some were dear friends who had moved away. Each person got a handwritten card. Some messaged me back to let me know they got the card, one sent a card back, many said nothing. That's the thing about gifts: they are given without the expectation of reciprocity. Reciprocity can be fickle.
The bizarre part was, the more clovers I sent away, the more I needed to find. My collection was dwindling to zero, more people wanted clovers than I had, so I had to keep looking. I had found my collection over the span of years, now I needed to find more in days. Somehow, Fortuna heard my call, and gave me more clovers. In my back yard and while walking my dog, I found four leafed clovers.
Fortuna was leaving signs for me everywhere, and for the first time, I was acknowledging her back. She became generous. She bestowed charms upon me, and I was generous back. Fortuna was always around, but she just turned her volume up to 11, capriciously.
Summer 2021 was a summer of healing and recovery. It was for lots of people after the previous year. I had been through eight surgeries in that year and had another one on the autumn horizon that I didn't know was coming yet. Over the course of 2021 I made a point to be kinder. It was in late summer, I came to terms with an old break up I had, a very old break up. I realized that I no longer need to be angry at that ex-boyfriend for how we acted with each other. It was a long time ago. I used to say if I ever saw him again, I would turn into that immature person I once was. I used to say that about a lot of people. In 2021, I decided to give up anger.
Towards the end of the year, an old friend, one of the friends I sent a clover to in the spring passed away. It reminded me that Fortuna spins her wheel for both good and bad. She cares not where it lands. I attended his memorial and gave two more four-leafed clovers to an old friend and a new friend at the service. The friend who passed away was known for his love, kindness, and strength. He was virtue embodied.
Going forward in 2022.
I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, this year, the day of my friend's memorial, I decided to do that. This year, I dedicate my kindness in his memory. I don't do it for the people who receive my kindness, I don't do it for myself, this year, I do it for him. If I have a chance to be a sober cab, donate, give, be generous, it's going to happen. It already has in this first month. What have I done? It doesn't need to be said, the recipients know.
Fortuna favors the bold, the generous, and the prepared. I am a humble acolyte. I have a world of work ahead of me.
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