I have always considered myself lucky. So lucky in fact, that often my good fortune is a family joke and mystery. I have found $50 bills laying in the middle of empty streets, I consistently win lottery tickets, I win free stuff almost anytime there’s a chance, and my timing for major life changes seems to be impeccably lucky and precise for perfect opportunities and transitions when most unexpected. My brother resents me for this “magical” Blackwell gene that I have seemed to monopolized in the family.
So, what’s my secret? It’s found in the bistro patchwork of my personality and in the roll-with-the-punches qualities that I inherited from my father. There really is no secret, instead there is just expectation. You see, I expect good things to happen to me. I create my own luck. When they don’t turn out how I expect, then it provides me with a good laugh. Either way, I win.
- LAUGHTER = TRUE POCKET THERAPY; photo from the 2009 Milk Image Shots Competition
Whether I hit the jackpot, get blessed with the best team of staff and co-workers possible, or luck out with free international bike shipping because sometimes people just “forget” to charge me, I count it no different from the good luck I find in a REAL laugh with a good friend. Moreover, since I love to laugh, I tend to attract very comedic friends; it works out perfectly, they are witty and clever, and I boost their egos with my relentlessly supportive laughter. Again, great luck.
Laughter is the pocket therapy of life. It is available to everyone and is always with us if we just reach into our pockets for it. It can turn around any bad day, it can liven the dying spirit and it can forge friendship into life-lasting kinships. Laughter makes every BODY shine with beauty; it brings out the best in every face shape, body size and human heart. My good luck genes are grounded in the luck of laughter.