Finding Luck

One leaf is for hope, and one is for faith,
And one is for love, you know,
And God put another in for luck, -
If you search, you will find where they grow. 

- Ella Higginson

I believe in luck. I have a friend who will argue that what I call luck is just hard work and being prepared. I prefer to think of it as Divine Grace or perhaps as Blessings. Whatever one calls it, my life if full of it.

I'm keenly aware of the grace of it when I take my daily walks. The morning air, the warmth of the sun, the colors of the fields, the birds raising up from the corn stalks --  all remind me of my relationship to the world, my responsibility for it, and my gratefulness of it.

This morning as I walked my way toward the end of the gravel drive, I glanced over to the raggedy grass and a large four-leaf clover caught my eye. Rather than finding it, it seemed to find me. "Pick me. Pick me," it called out. And so I bent down and picked it.

This ability to find four-leaf clovers (or luck) has been a hidden talent of mine since I was a grade schooler. I can remember being six or seven and leaning out of a second-story window claiming that I could see a four-leaf clover from on high. My younger sister seriously doubted it and challenged me to go pick it. I jumped off the toilet seat that I was standing on, tore down the steps, slid through the kitchen and out the back door. While she waited in the window, I reached down and picked a perfect four-leaf clover, holding it up to her so she could see. Looking back on it, I doubt that I could see that clover from two stories up, but rather was bragging about my ability, and then (luckily) was able to find one once I got down to ground level.

Finding four-leaf clovers is not that hard. You just need to know where to look and how to look. Maggie's got the hang of it and claims it as her hidden talent. Mary asked me to teach her today and so I did. Within four minutes, she found four four-leaf clovers. May she be blessed with good luck!