THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE

Luck.  Dumb Luck. Lucky shot. Lucky girl. I’m outta luck. If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all. We hear it. We say it about ourselves and about others. Luck comes in two ways: good or bad with no in-betweens. But what is luck anyway? I once heard an athlete responding to someone who claimed that his team was lucky that “luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.” He’s correct.

We may be in the right place at the right time when some sudden good fortune comes our way; but if we are not prepared to deal with that sudden good fortune, it will pass us by. So when the lucky break comes our way, we had better be prepared to make the use of the opportunity presented. If not, we have no one else to blame but ourselves. Bad luck comes because we were not prepared.

We look around, usually in envy, and conclude that “some people have all the luck.” Who are those people and why are we not one of them? Well, in fact, we are even though we do not realize it. We don’t because we tend to think that the results of luck are some kind of material or financial success, being renowned in society. Yet some of these people we deem lucky are miserable. While their success may bring rewards, it is not the rewards they really need or maybe even desire.

No, the luckiest people are, as the song says, the people who need people. That should be all of us, but, sadly, it is not. We all need people. But too many people go through life not realizing that what is missing in their lives, what worldly success does not bring, are people who love them, care for them, are there for them no matter how successful or unsuccessful they are.

Deep in our soul we search for that one person. We, as the song says, “hunger and thirst” for someone to walk with us through life. And when we have found that person there is “no more hunger and thirst.” Until we come to that realization, until we have found that person or persons, we will wait for what we deem as luck to come our way. And yet, when it does, we discover it is not what we are really looking for or what we need. And so we keep searching.

So how does preparation meeting opportunity come into play here? It’s on both ends. Sometimes we are the on needing someone or some others to walk our journey with us and sometimes we are the person another is looking for. As with luck, it is happenstance. We never know when that opportunity will arise. But it won’t arise if first we fail to understand our need and the other’s need, their and our hunger and thirst, for another companion in our lives.

My guess is that we have that person, those people, and others have found us. My further guess is that we just don’t realize just how lucky we are