Luck

by Helen Pratt

The art of Dreaming while awake and aware can open many doors and help us see from all points of view. I received a chain email recently. Sprinkled throughout were guarantees that good luck would come to me if I sent the email on to 20 people. If I didn’t send it on, for certain I would have bad luck.

What a powerful word, luck. Is luck a gift or punishment from some outside force? Do we make our own luck or do we need a lucky charm, a lucky t-shirt, or a four leaf clover to make it happen? If so, this implies that we have no control over our own lives. We are fated to live according to the whims of something apart from us. We are fated to be afraid.

Superstitions are luck in story form passed down through the ages. As some stories tell it, ladders, black cats, rabbit feet and horse shoes determine our fortune. Of course, with horse shoes it is important to hang them correctly. If hung one way it is good luck if another then bad luck. So many rules to life in order to control luck, such as knock on wood, cross your fingers, toss salt over your shoulder, and never ever open an umbrella inside a building or step on a crack. Of course that is just in my culture. How about all the other cultures of the world?

When I saw the email I was struck by what we as humans feel about luck. What silly ways we find to give away power and faith in ourselves. How easy it is to slip into believing that luck is what drives our lives and that we are just along for the ride. It has given me more awareness about the power of words and beliefs – those things that we might call everyday superstitions and lucky charms. How are they influencing us? How much investment are we giving them without realizing it? What ways are we ‘trusting in words’ instead of trusting in ourselves?

All this has made me realize that we are luck itself. We give it definition and then we give it power. It is us in every respect. In the same way, we are the moment and we are the love that is experienced in every moment. This could go on and on, right? Love, Life, God – -
If we could see the truth for a second, we might see that there is nothing outside of us, and maybe then we would be afraid of nothing.

How lucky is that?