Luck is Self Created Sometimes

Or at least the hope of it can be if you ask the right optimist.

I've been up here awhile now. A weekend trip turned into a week turned into... going on nearly 3 months now. I've been feeling the weight of all the work but also the progress. A ride last week with passenger Angela was a trip into the understanding of the blur of the extra heavy time that seems to capture all of us.

Morning traffic in any city is torrential but that day had been particularly bad here in the not quite currently sunny locale of San Francisco. I had been in what felt like a struggling gerbil wheel of a current navigating through the nearly standstill city. Things were an ever going pull and push towards getting nowhere. My phone was full of cancelled requests from impatient would be patrons in the Financial District struggling with their own frustrations of shared lines in a...

When I got to Angela, who was on the outside of the chaos, I was completely drained. I had made nothing. I had just wasted time and gas and patience.

"Thank you for picking me up!" she said.

"Oh no thank you for being outside all of this mess..."

"Were you just in that? It took me so long just to get to where you were from the last ride that I walked a bit rather than sit in a car not moving. It took 25 minutes to move very little!" 

"Oh my god yes!"

We were united in that moment by our fury of the city.

"You seem so positive despite all of this. I have to ask you, what's your secret?"

Angela laughed as she twirled a ring on her finger.

"See this?" she said as she pointed to the ring.

"I do. But what is the meaning? Is it the I do?"

"I have had my share of long and hard days.  I wanted something to remind myself about how lucky I am to be able to complain about them and get to the next. That's why I got this ring. It's not a wedding ring. It's just a simple silver ring I inscribed with the word "Lucky" to help me on days like today. Because I am lucky. So are you."

I smiled.

"A silver lining indeed."

She smiled too.

And in that moment I did indeed feel lucky again.  It was such a beautiful thing that had entered my car. It was like the universe had been listening.  Angela was the silver lining.

On days like this week and the gloomy summer in San Francisco (and/or everywhere else) I bid you to remember this story.  Luck is self created sometimes. Luck is a shift in perspective. Luck is right there waiting to be warmed on your fingers. Will you let it in?