Earlier tonight my dog, Bailey, jumped into my lap like she does most nights. As my husband handed me her brush, I reminded him that she likes him to brush her. He was certain, however, that she really didn’t mind who brushes her as long as she gets brushed. Then we started talking about how well behaved Bailey has been with the grandog, Woody. For whatever reason, the conversation turned to how lucky we’ve been with our pets. And now I can’t help but think about how lucky we’ve been in our lives.
Some say that you make luck, it doesn’t just happen. I’m not sure. I mean, I suppose we “made” both of our children and boy did we luck out with them. The oldest was the perfect baby, pretty much sleeping through the night at a month old and our youngest, after a nasty bought with projectile vomiting, was not a difficult baby. She, too, slept through the night very early on (of course, this could be because I’m a champion sleeper…at least that’s what my UP band says).
I remember holding my breath throughout their childhoods, waiting, I suppose, for the luck to break. It didn’t. One time when he was seventeen, I remember my oldest telling me he had to tell me something and the tone of his voice led me to jump straight to thinking something life-altering had occurred. In reality, he needed to confess he had some beers at a friend’s house. I really think he knew the mom was going to call me, but I can tell you I felt immense relief that it wasn’t more serious. Lucky, I guess.
Neither of our children have ever been in trouble. In fact, I remember my son intentionally trying to get detention in high school because he thought he shouldn’t graduate without at least one detention under his belt. He never did get that detention. Our daughter never did strive for a detention badge of honor; instead, she’s always walked the straight and narrow line – never really doing anything to break the rules. I’m not saying my children are perfect; I’m just saying we are lucky they’ve never done anything to cause us to wonder why we aren’t living on the beaches of some far away land, childless. Again, I attribute this to luck.
Where else have we been lucky? Everywhere. We owned our own business, once upon a time. We owned it during the peaks and we lost it during the valleys. And we almost lost everything along the way. But, by luck and help from family, we didn’t lose anything more than the business. Okay, that’s not really luck, but more like love. Well, it could be considered luck that our family was able to help us get back on our feet without any lasting negative effects.
But even before I even knew my husband, there was my best girl friend. She knows everything about me and loves me, still, anyway. That’s pretty lucky for me. My lucky life includes the night I met my husband. We were in college and he was originally my roommate’s date. I guess I sort of stole him and the day I did that was the luckiest day of my life.
I’m not saying luck always equals a smooth life, but reflecting on all the luck in my life really puts things in perspective. I am seriously lucky.
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