“I am not a graceful person. I am not a Sunday morning or a Friday sunset. I am a Tuesday 2am, I am gunshots muffled by a few city blocks, I am a broken window during winter. My bones crack on a nightly basis. I fall from elegance with a dull thud, and I apologise for my awkward sadness. I sometimes believe that I do not belong around people, that I belong to all the leap days that never happened. The way darkness and light mix under my skin has become a storm. You don’t see the lightening, but you hear the echoes.”

When possible I will provide photos, with the faces, places and specifics blurred to protect the stupid innocent.

People behaving strangely – Episode 1 – The Diva

In this episode I’m in a grocery store cereal aisle with two of my children. My son is on foot and my youngest daughter is perched in the large shopping cart I’m pushing. It’s a narrow little aisle with a concrete pillar staggered halfway, a small wall of cereal on one side and rice and dry beans on the other. I’ve been there about two minutes, parked in front of the cereal quite close to the shelf, when an attractive young blonde woman rounds the corner. She parks herself an arm’s length away from the dried beans, about a foot away from the end of my cart. This successfully blocks the entire walkway.

She stands there staring, seemingly completely absorbed in the rice, first picking up one bag and then another, reading the ingredients. At this point I’m wondering what could be so transfixing about the back of a bag of rice but apparently I need to start checking them out because this chick looks like she could burn a hole through the package with her eyes.

She’d been at this for about five minutes when a female employee carrying a heavy box of cans walked up and stood at her shoulder, smiling and waiting for her to notice and make room to pass. I noticed all this out of the corner of my eye and saw my position was such that I couldn’t make room without a big move. The only variable who could move with ease was the young woman, so I turned back to the cereal confident the situation would take care of itself.

After a bit I noticed the store employee still standing there quietly. She stood there, shuffled a bit and stood there… cleared her throat a little and stood there… and stood there… and stood there. By this time I noticed the muscles in her shoulders and forearms start to droop from the weight of the box. She then made another noise, bent forward from the waist and tried to peer around into the young woman’s face and get her attention, but was ignored.

The entire time this is happening and as it’s beginning to grow uncomfortable I’m thinking to myself “she’ll move… any moment she’ll move”, but she never did. She knew the woman was waiting to get around her so she could do her job, and she deliberately went on standing there stock still in the middle of the aisle, picking up every bag of rice in front of her slowly and carefully and reading the packages.

Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer, gathered my children closer to me, manuevered my cart around and backed all four of us up the length of two carts so the employee could make a wide path around the woman, which she thanked me for and did. The young woman never looked up but right after the employee was past her she abruptly turned on her heel and left.

???

Rebuttal?

p.s. You should hear me trying to pronounce my married name. After more than a decade I still have to get into a mindset before I attempt it.

p.p.s. You should hear my husband say “were”. It’s one of the reasons I can’t live without him.

p.p.p.s. The kids in those videos are so ADORABLE.

So… Spring. It isn’t here yet, won’t arrive until the 20th, but you’d never know from the rejoicing going on outside my windows every morning. The little feathered fellas are anticipating the return of the sun with vigor. I love to hear them sing. You can’t help but be happy in the face of all that utter joy.

In other news I finally broke down and joined the “Chucks” crowd despite decades of resistance. After seeing young and old alike wearing them I decided to find out why. Result: Comfort! They’re like house shoes with tennis shoe soles. I decided to get a pair but in as respectable a color as I could manage, like black or white or gray. Turns out shops in Germany don’t seem to order several pair of the more popular colors, so what I found in the Converse aisle was more shades than a box of Skittles. I also discovered these shoes must still be extremely popular because despite there being a great number the only pairs left in my size were Barney the Dinosaur purple, Day Glo red, and a weird dirty beige. I settled on the purple because they were the least eye searing. The beige were the Saturday night mug shot color of a serial killer’s teeth. The red were the shade you see guiding planes in on foggy nights, so… yeah. Barney the Dinosaur purple and I’m grateful.

Truthfully though they’re beginning to grow on me. I’m also getting real good at avoiding my neighbor’s eyes on the sidewalk, which I imagine are rolling so hard they’re in danger of losing them altogether. But when have I ever been a stranger to that?

Behold, and Happy Spring! (do people say that? Happy Spring? well I do, so Happy Spring!):

Meditation for today: A jug is filled drop by drop.

How to Improve Your Luck:

Feeling a little unlucky lately? Want the secret to being lucky? You have it already – it’s you. The secret to improving luck is about perspective, self-belief and erring on the side of optimism. It isn’t about winning huge pots of cash – it’s about making the most of the wonderful blessings already surrounding you. Here are some thoughts for making your own luck grow.

Steps:

1.) Use Your Mind – Luck is tied to the power of your imagination. Someone said, “Luck is just probability taken personally”. Improved luck will require a lot of personal dedication and hard work.

2.) Prepare – “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”, said Seneca, Roman dramatist, philosopher and politician, 5 BC – 65 AD. If you have the groundwork in place you can take advantage of the opportunities that come your way.

3.) Network – Lucky people know people, lots of people. They don’t have to be everyone’s bosom buddy but it is the art of being open to many new people that counts. Practice feeling comfortable talking to strangers at events that you attend. And actively listen to them when you strike up a voncersation because you will have a lot to learn and they will remember that you appreciated what they had to say. This can translate into opportunities; the more people you meet and the more people you display genuine interest in, the more likelihood of you meeting the right person at the right time who has an opportunity at hand that you want to be a part of.

4.) Trust your instincts – That little inner voice is often right and lucky people know this. You will also know when your “common sense” or “reason” are trying to override the lucky hunch. When this happens, take a moment aside to sit and think things through clearly and uninterrupted. Consider whose voices are speaking to you when you are faced with overriding intuition – is it your own trustworthy voice or is it the voices of others’ expectations – a spouse, a boss, a friend?

5.) Take it easy – Anxiety and worry are enemies of luck. They introduce a factor that says “Be very risk averse” and “Whoa there! Hold back now!” You won’t be stumbling across luck while you are too busy hiding out. When opportunities come, you need to notice them and you need to seize them. A lucky person believes in now as being as important as tomorrow and much more so than yesterday. Don’t be held back by ghosts of failure – they were just learning experiences. And tomorrow will always come whatever happens, so do your best to enjoy today so that tomorrow has a standard to match!

6.) Be ready for new opportunities – The more open you are to novel ideas and new ways of doing things, the more likely it is that you will strike it lucky. Lucky people don’t plod along methodically; while that guarantees a safe and secure path, lucky people take the path less known and meet all sorts of amazing opportunities along the way. Put your fot on that path now… try something you have never done before, try something you have convinced yourself you would hate, try something that someone else has suggested you try. Be bold.

7.) Be an eternal optimist – Expect the best. Yes, anyone can do this and why not? It isn’t about living with the fairies. It is about being positive and creating the outcomes that you want most. Lucky people are optimistic and they expect that good things will happen to them. Heard the mantra “only good things happen to me”? Well, probably not, as most of us tend to whine “why do all the bad things happen to me?!” Stop it right now and start expecting the best.

8.) Turn sour milk into a smoothie – So the milk went off? Big deal. There are still a lot of things you can do with it, so do it. Instead of choosing to wallow and feel rotten about things that go wrong, look for life’s lessons in the experience and look for new solutions that grow out of the bad experience. Dwelling on horrible events in your life gives them great power over you, stifling your growth and stomping on your luck. And when you view the world in this manner, even if Lady Luck does call, you’re likely to sabotage it because that suits your negative mindset. avoid the wallowing and kick yourself back into action. sure, there are times in life when some events really set us back, such as the loss of a loved one, but far better to honor that person’s memory by doing things in remembrance of them than using that los as an eternal unhappiness trigger. It is really important to learn and grow from sadness and harship rather than to let it harden us and turn us bitter.

9.) Reframe your life – If you perceive yourself as a victim or a hapless flotsam of fate, it is time to reframe. You are a shaper of your destiny and one lucky person. You’re lucky to be alive; that’s the biggest blessing every single one of us gets. Honour that lucky chance and live your life to its fullest. You’ll only be glad that you did.

10.) Never stop learning – This is related to staying open to new opportunities. Unlucky people think their learning stopped at school or university. Lucky people realize that that was just the beginning and that life is one huge university. Soak it all up; even the stuff you find hard, boring, or uncomfortable. It really makes your life a whole lot more exciting and helps you to understand where others are coming from. Aiming to understand a wide range of perspectives makes it easier for you to forgive people and to see their points of view. Knowing this enables you to weave others’ motivations into how you approach life and treat them with respect. Which leads to the next point…

11.) treat people with respect – Lucky people know that other people matter. Respect for others makes you automatically lucky because it stops you from expecting other people’s behavior to conform to your own or to ease your way. Instead, you know how to respect people for who they are rather than what you wish they would be. And you avoid the arrogance of placing your personalit style and lifestyle beliefs above theirs.

12.) Treat the Earth with respect – The Earth gives us food, water, shelter, oxygen and for some people, spiritual fulfillment. Lucky people acknowledge this and care for the world around them as a mark of this respect. Involving yourself with nature by getting outdoors and enjoying it improves your sense of self-assureance as you don’t fear its elements but embrace them. In so doing, you increase your luck as you boraden your knowledge and opportunities.

13.) Treat your body with respect, as you hone your instincts by listening to your “inner voice”, you can also become more in touch with your body awareness – Listen to it. Holistic health practitioners believe your physical, emotional, and spiritual health directly affects how you relate to the world around you.

14.) Do no harm – Lucky people don’t use or harm others to forward their own goals. Instead they invite others to accompany them on the journey. While networking, respecting self and others, and caring for the earth around them, luck people nurture themselves as well as those with whom they come in contact.

Tips:

Luck is made, not found. And the luck that is “stumbled across” is very often fool’s gold in the hands of a person who doesn’t know what to do with it. If you believe in yourself and your abilities, and follow the ideas outlined above, you will be in a great position to take advantage of lucky breaks.

Use techniques such as visualization and goal-setting to create your luck.They are not over-used mantras; they are proven techniques to ensure that you remain directed and focused on the things you want for yourself in life.

Use affirmations daily. “I am going to have a lucky day today.” “I am going to have good fortune today.” “I am going to help enable my luck today by helping others to be lucky today.”

Be humble. Luck favors the humble; this doesn’t mean you can’t stand out there and enthuse others to find their luck but you mustn’t toot your horn of arrogance or luck will start to shy away as you become too self-certain. And this quickly steps into the realm of disrespecting others and closing yourself off to more learning. Remember balance and you’ll be fine.

Don’t get cocky. The more lucky you are, the more prone you are to become cocky and think you’re better than everyone else.

Things you’ll need:

Affirmation post-it notes stuck in strategic places.
A book of positive quotations (or an internet site can send these to you daily)
A photo of a four-leaved clover at your front door to remind you that you are your own luck; place it so you can see it when you go out and when you come in.
Networking opportunities; if you don’t have them, start making them, even at the local pub.
Neat clothes; you don’t need expensive and designer wear to be lucky but neatness is important in whatever you wear, as it convey self-respect and people warm to that.