05 Apr

Dragonflies

dragonfly

I was attending a graduation ceremony with my wife, Heather, recently. It was a perfect summer day and I noticed there was an abundance of dragonflies floating around the crowd. “Look at all the dragonflies, babe.” I said in amazement. “They’re good luck, you know.” she replied.

This was the first time I had heard that dragonflies were good luck and a funny thing happened after that. I changed the way I looked at dragonflies. They were no longer simply cool looking insects with big heads and a wide wingspan. For no other reason than just hearing that they were regarded as lucky, I started to see them as lucky, too. I started making note of when I saw them and began to expect good luck to come my way. Invariably, it always did. I would get into an interesting conversation or I’d find the perfect parking spot or I could get stuck in traffic and realize that I narrowly missed an accident because I was delayed. It could be just about anything. It helps that my idea of good becomes more flexible the more I’m expecting it.

I eventually noticed that seeing a dragonfly caused me to have a heightened sense of my impending blessing. By this, I mean that I knew that when I saw a dragonfly, or anything else that I deemed lucky, good things would happen and so, that is what I saw. Even the things that I might initially see as bad, required closer scrutiny to find the good that was surely there. I started to ponder the very nature of luck and my own role in it’s interpretation. Like many, I’ve gone through my life labeling objects, conditions and even other people as lucky or unlucky. I thought it was perceptive of me to notice certain qualities, recognize their nature and categorize them properly. Of course, this was bolstered by the fact that I was rarely wrong. Little did I know, I was loading the deck. Unconsciously rigging the game.

The truth is that when I peered in to the random soup of conditions that surround me, I find what I believe. If I believe all signs point to misfortune, I will surely find it. When I know good is present, I see it all around me. I have the power to infuse even more totems as lucky to enhance my feeling of good. With practice, could I even view my very existence as luck itself? Am I the recipient of a constant barrage of blessings? I suppose it’s up to me to believe it and find it to be true.