Friday, the 13th: This Could Be Your Lucky Day or Not

On the last Friday the 13th, my sisters and I left town and flew to Phoenix.  We ended the day eating a midnight meal of pancakes, eggs and bacon, etc. at Denny's Restaurant in Scottsdale and then  found the room where we'd be staying for the next three days.  Friday, the 13th had ended by then. 

Guess we lucked out on that day because all went well except for the $2 I lost in a slot machine during our layover in Las Vegas. 

This Friday the 13th will be spent right here in Sandpoint, so at least I won't throw away any money gambling.  

Will the day be filled with luck or not?  That is the question.

So far, so good.  The worst thing that's happened is that I left the barn-cleaning cart out in the yard and fell behind in my morning chores by all of one minute. 

I tend to think about luck on this particular Friday, the 13th because we're leading right up to celebrating the "Luck o' the Irish" in a few days with St. Patrick's Day, which honors the patron saint of Ireland.  

I read about St. Patrick in today's paper and how, as a boy, he was kidnapped from his home in England and spent the next few years as a slave in Ireland.  When he went back to England and became a priest and a bishop and eventually decided the course of his life, he said Ireland had called him back. 

The rest is history, a whole lot of it and these days hundreds of years later,  St. Patrick is revered in Ireland and in most of the world.  I'm not sure how much luck he brought the Irish back in those days, but they say he did get rid of snakes, spoke strongly against slavery and converted many people to Christianity. 

Actually, "Luck o' the Irish" may be more of a figure of speech than it is a fact of life.  In fact, I haven't ever felt that luck just cuz I'm Irish.  

Still, it's good to hope that once in a while the "luck of the Irish" shines upon us.  

For example, if luck be with me in the next few days, there's one major event I'd like to see happen.  

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in hoping really hard that THE COMMITTEE which, on Selection Sunday,  determines seedings and locations of NCAA teams for March Madness, sends the Gonzaga Bulldogs to Seattle. 

Now, that would be some really good luck for the Irish among us, cuz this time next week several of us family members be walking into Key Arena near the Space Needle, dressed in our ZAGS garb and hoping to see our team play whoever THE COMMITTEE has deemed a worthy opponent for the first round.  

That would be nice.  Fingers crossed.  Still searching for the four-leaf clover to go along with this wish. 

Let's see what other luck could come on this Friday, the 13th.  I don't plan to buy a lottery ticket so that idea can be cast aside. 

Actually, lucky days cannot be planned.  Luck falls upon us when we least suspect it, and, as far as I'm concerned, if I don't slip on a banana peel and most things go well without any dire incidents, every day is a pretty lucky day.

We have a lot of those, and when we look at the alternative possibilities in other parts of the world, we're pretty darned lucky most of the time----even without the lottery tickets or the slot machine bells ringing like crazy cuz we're a winner. 

This morning I read an account on Facebook posted by a former student who has learned from doctors that she has three-to six months to live.  She has fought cancer courageously for the past several years, only to learn that further treatments will be fruitless.

This student had the courage to post to her Facebook friends the general details of her situation.  Reading her words and thinking of the bright, shining inspiration she has been ever since I knew her as a student several years ago make me think very seriously about luck and good fortune. 

Suddenly, winning a lottery ticket or having some fantastic situation befall us from out of the blue seems pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of our life journeys.

I feel lucky this morning that I've had the opportunity to know this friend and former student all these years. Every time I've seen her smiling face----those times have been gifts. 

And, as I've expressed so many times, luck comes our way each day---not just Friday, the 13th but virtually every day in the form of good health, good family and wonderful friends. 

So, we all have our lucky days, and whether or not this one, with all its historically superstitious elements, brings good or bad luck, comparatively speaking, we're pretty darned fortunate, most of the time. 

In honor of my student who has inspired so many people with her courage and her positive outlook, I'll simply say, "Smile, it's a good day." 

Happy Friday.