Another Day in the Country
A lucky duck
© Another Day in the Country
When I send my cousin Janet pictures of my ducks waddling around the yard or splashing in the pond, she often responds, “They are such lucky ducks.”
And they are just that! They are lucky to have come to live with me, and I am lucky to have been able to learn to appreciate ducks even though I knew very little about them when I invited them to cohabitate.
The remaining four of the original six ducks are lucky to have escaped when their buddies were caught by a fox early on. They are lucky to have a little pond to swim around in on occasion. And they are lucky that my neighbors have managed to keep their dogs contained.
The ducks have no notion of the effort by various people that it requires to keep them alive and happy — enjoying all this good luck.
My handyman tells me raccoons just got the last two of his laying hens — and he has big dogs. The ducks and I are lucky no raccoons have come calling, especially since I don’t have dogs.
I’ve had raccoons come calling before. They are messy, devastating creatures even though they seem cute.
Two of them got onto my back porch where I foolishly kept cat food and tore up the place several years ago.
Lucky for me, I had LeeRoy available with an animal trap. Lucky for them, he took them away from civilization (as we know it in Ramona) and released them.
They came back, and their luck ran out.
My longtime friend, Gary, who has his doctorate in psychology, loves telling about his mother asking him when he was a boy whether he’d rather be brilliant, rich, or lucky in his life ahead.
“So, what would you choose?” she’d ask.
I’m asking you that question now. Think about it.
A quick mind is a wonderful gift if you appreciate the miracles occurring every second of life as your brain processes your environment.
Being wealthy is a pretty good choice. Money can solve a lot of problems in life. It seems we’re always hoping for, or needing, a little more income.
“I chose lucky,” Gary says, continuing his story, “and I have been. I could spend hours telling you all the good luck I’ve had in my life.”
When I first thought about luck, I thought of it as some random thing that no one could control. However, I don’t think that’s really what luck is all about.
Luck, as a concept, is in most if not all cultures. In our culture, I think luck often is thought of as a gamble — something completely unpredictable, even though gambling is much more predictable than most would like to admit.
I’ve been reading a book on Tibetan culture. The Tibetan word for “luck” is pronounced “loong-ta.” It means “wind horse,” which describes the randomness of fate or destiny and is closely related to what they call Karma.
“Karma is the law of causation,” I read.
In our culture, we have Newton’s Law — “to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” — which is very similar in concept.
My book went on to clarify:
“Karma can be directly translated as action. A karmic effect results from an earlier action.”
So, Karma is not destiny or fate, just like luck really isn’t random. Both are results of some action — if not our action, then someone else’s.
If the action is positive, this is really good news! If luck / Karma is caused by an action, that means a different action can change the result.
This is a concept the whole state of Kansas needs to learn — maybe the whole country. Our actions cause things to happen. We should be aware of this law of nature every moment.
Every single thing you put in your mouth is deciding the luck you will have with your health 10 years down the road.
Too many of us don’t really believe that our diet or our environment can change our lives for the better or worse.
The same goes for whatever you put into your mind!
At a health club, I read a notice on a bulletin board that said, “Your mind is the garden, your thoughts are the seeds. You can plant flowers, or you can plant weeds.”
That was such a good little quote that I texted it out to my family. Now, I’m sharing it with you on another day in the country.