Luck of the...inspired

This past weekend, I enjoyed St. Patrick’s Day – not with a cold, green beer (though that  would have been tasty), but with time with my son, talking about luck. Louie got me caught up in the spell of the holiday, sitting in a patch of clover together and looking for the four-leafed variety.  We didn’t find one, but we shared a pretty special half hour together on our search. 

All of the talk of leprechauns and lucky charms and the hunt for four-leaf clovers made me ponder the concept of “luck.”

Here is what I think. You can call it a conclusion or maybe even a confession, but I believe that there is no such thing as true luck. If you ask me, it does not exist. 

I came to this belief about 8 years ago when I adopted Louie.  People used to say how lucky we were to have found each other. He was lucky to find such a good mom. I was lucky to have such a precious little boy. You get the idea.  But when you think about it, it wasn’t lucky at all.  It was a conscious decision on the part of his birth mother to choose adoption and to choose me to be his forever mommy.  We didn’t get lucky.  Those were hard decisions for her, but they were her decisions just the same. 

So think about it on a grander scale.  Did the homeless guy on the street “get lucky” when you gave him five bucks at the stoplight?  He may think so, but you made that decision spontaneously to scrounge around in your purse for cash.  Did the soccer team get lucky with their win?  Or did their skills and training allow them to outplay the other team and make a buzzer beater goal?  Was it luck when I went through the McDonald’s drive-thru for a diet coke and the car in front of me paid my ticket?  No, because then I, too, made the decision to pay the ticket for the person in the car coming behind me. When that person got to the window and found out his or her bill had been paid, they may have considered themselves lucky. But luck, it was not.

All of this “luck,” is actually consciously decided (perhaps even divinely inspired), but it has an impact just the same. If anything “luck” is a feeling. What we choose to do for others creates that good feeling in them. We have that kind of power.

St. Paddy’s Day has passed, but I ask you to think about creating some luck for someone you may or may not know.  Embrace a cause, donate to a charity or a church, or simply hold the door for someone.  Your decision to help might just give a little hope to someone who thinks they are “down on their luck.”

After nearly 30 years in the broadcast industry, Lisa Fields is now in charge of a new venture; she runs Broadcast1Source, a small software company specializing in FCC compliance for broadcasters. However, nothing compares to the adventure of raising rambunctious, sweet and charming Louie, her eight-year-old son. Lisa’s home, “Camp Fields,” is always open to small children, stray dogs and wayward adults! With this motto, is there any doubt that Camp Fields is the official headquarters of Wednesday Night Wine and the Inspired Winers?