The Suitcase Lady

Omen

January 7, 2020, 8:17 pm

Whether a solar or lunar calendar is used, the turning of the year causes people around the world to think about good luck and how to send some their way. Traditions, rituals and invocations abound, some practiced with sincere belief and others with tongue in cheek.

Luck is an enormous factor in all our lives. Our country of birth, parents’ genes and bank account are all luck. And a chance meeting with one person can set the entire direction of our lives, a.k.a., falling in love. Only a fool thinks that he or she has arrived in the present moment solely by personal effort.

I am definitely part of the masses wanting good luck for this New Year. But I can’t bring myself to eating herring at midnight like my grandmother did to induce it. The only thing that would induce would be a gag reflex. My best invitation to luck is raising and drinking a glass of champagne at the stroke of twelve.

This year, however, Lady Luck presented me with a delightfully good omen on the morning of January first. We began the day waking up to sun, blue skies and great surf in San Diego. Then came breakfast at our family’s favorite oceanside surfers’ cafe for their aptly named “Big Breakfast”. We figured we needed to fuel up on carbs to return home to six inches of snow and three more months of winter.

I ordered breakfast at the counter and the cashier laughed when he ran up my total. “Would you believe”, he said,” that you owe me exactly $20.20?”

I’m looking forward to a splendid year.

 

 


1 Comment for this entry

  • everobillard
    January 8th, 2020 on 1:33 PM

    Mary–Oh, that is a good one! I had a food bill at a Pick n Safe on Norb’s birthday a few years ago: 11.37–the hour of his birth!