You make your own luck
Everyone's heard the expression, which automatically makes it seem trite, but I know for a fact that it's true.
I could tell you stories that would raise the hackles on your neck. I've posted many of them here over the years. I live an active life and while I don't go looking for trouble, I don't hide in a hole when it comes looking for me. And one of the more interesting things about keeping your head up is that you see more clearly.
I have literally dodged death or serious injury more than a dozen times due to what many would call coincidence. And that's just the peak events. If I posted every incidence of synchronicity that I noticed in my day-to-day life, not even I would believe me.
I get the occasional compliment and the occasional insult, but probably the most common example of both I hear is "you're very lucky."
And it's true, or as true as anything one can put into words. From my perspective, though, these events follow a particular pattern of seemingly inevitable occurrences combined with my own presence of mind. I'm not saying I don't make mistakes or that I always end up on top of every situation - far from it. But I find that when I pay attention to what's going on around me and act in the moment as the situation dictates, things tend to turn out my way. Sometimes, I get pants.
I don't think there's anything supernatural about it. In fact I think that word has no useful meaning. Nothing exists outside of nature. Stuff happens - it's only in our minds that we get to dismiss it or accept it. But you don't have to believe in anything outside of what you can see and feel to know that your attitude determines your fate.
Of course I think that human will can affect the world - I think that's inarguable to anyone who has studied history, built a house or seen the earth from orbit. We don't have to posit some invisible force to realize that our decisions matter in the wider scale of things, no matter what the media would have us believe.
That being said, I also think that the worst thing someone can do to themselves is surrender to bad fortune. Whatever you want to call it - if you think you're unlucky, or cursed, or hated by some god or another - then you're automatically right. It's just as bad (or worse) as blaming someone else for your sorry fate. The only thing blame does is take the power out of your own hands and render you helpless. If you blame someone or something for what's wrong with your life, than the only way to fix it is for the person or thing or "supernatural force" to change, and that will never be under your control.
As the_nita once said to me (entirely out of context): "Self-inflicted. No sympathy."
It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in luck, or in gods, or in that creepy Chinese cat with the bent paw. You can't control the past or the future. The only time you can change anything is in this tiny slice of the present, RIGHT NOW.
Don't waste it. I'm begging you.
~r
I could tell you stories that would raise the hackles on your neck. I've posted many of them here over the years. I live an active life and while I don't go looking for trouble, I don't hide in a hole when it comes looking for me. And one of the more interesting things about keeping your head up is that you see more clearly.
I have literally dodged death or serious injury more than a dozen times due to what many would call coincidence. And that's just the peak events. If I posted every incidence of synchronicity that I noticed in my day-to-day life, not even I would believe me.
I get the occasional compliment and the occasional insult, but probably the most common example of both I hear is "you're very lucky."
And it's true, or as true as anything one can put into words. From my perspective, though, these events follow a particular pattern of seemingly inevitable occurrences combined with my own presence of mind. I'm not saying I don't make mistakes or that I always end up on top of every situation - far from it. But I find that when I pay attention to what's going on around me and act in the moment as the situation dictates, things tend to turn out my way. Sometimes, I get pants.
I don't think there's anything supernatural about it. In fact I think that word has no useful meaning. Nothing exists outside of nature. Stuff happens - it's only in our minds that we get to dismiss it or accept it. But you don't have to believe in anything outside of what you can see and feel to know that your attitude determines your fate.
Of course I think that human will can affect the world - I think that's inarguable to anyone who has studied history, built a house or seen the earth from orbit. We don't have to posit some invisible force to realize that our decisions matter in the wider scale of things, no matter what the media would have us believe.
That being said, I also think that the worst thing someone can do to themselves is surrender to bad fortune. Whatever you want to call it - if you think you're unlucky, or cursed, or hated by some god or another - then you're automatically right. It's just as bad (or worse) as blaming someone else for your sorry fate. The only thing blame does is take the power out of your own hands and render you helpless. If you blame someone or something for what's wrong with your life, than the only way to fix it is for the person or thing or "supernatural force" to change, and that will never be under your control.
As the_nita once said to me (entirely out of context): "Self-inflicted. No sympathy."
It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in luck, or in gods, or in that creepy Chinese cat with the bent paw. You can't control the past or the future. The only time you can change anything is in this tiny slice of the present, RIGHT NOW.
Don't waste it. I'm begging you.
~r