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Midnight last night marked the end of Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent starting with today which is Ash Wednesday. I debated the wisdom of doing a diary based upon religion and decided it was better left undone because beliefs (and non-beliefs) are very personal. Instead, I just want to wish blessings to those who mark Ash Wednesday as a holy day.
Instead, this diary is about good fortune and how life sometimes gives us a chance to turn it around when we least expect it.
Each day, I try to walk 3.1 miles through my neighborhood. During these morning power walks, I often spend time thinking about a topic for my Wednesday Morning Open Thread diary each week. Other than trying to write one on Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, and Lent, I was stumped until happenstance presented itself during my Monday walk.
I have been doing these walks religiously since the first of the year as part of getting back into a fitness regimen, and possibly losing the few extra pounds that have migrated onto my waist and hips. While I have not watched my diet like I should, just doing these walks has led to my losing five pounds in two months and a little bit off my hips and thighs. But the greatest payback is that I am feeling much more energetic as a result of a relatively simple exercise program. So I look forward to these walks each day.
The route I walk every day is pretty much the same as I have a measured course that gives me two long up hill climbs in the middle and then finishes with a nice steady downhill. On Monday, I was over halfway through my walk and was heading back up the longest uphill on my route when I spotted a pair of glasses lying on the road. When I reached down to pick them up, I suddenly noticed that what I originally thought was simply debris nearby, was, instead, a smashed glasses hard case and an I-Phone lying face down.
I figured that someone had accidentally placed these objects on the roof of their car but forgot about them so they subsequently fell off into the road. Remarkably, even though the glasses case was destroyed, both the glasses and the I-Phone were unscathed. So I picked up all three objects and continued on my walk back to my home.
When I got back, my husband was working in the back yard and I yelled to him that I had found some valuable things on my walk. He was puzzled until I showed him the I-Phone and the glasses. Since I do not have a smart phone, I gave him the phone and asked that he try to figure out how to contact the owner. He went into the directory and began calling some of the numbers listed.
The first two calls yielded nothing. But when he called the third number, a woman answered "Hi Sweetie!" It turned out that she was the wife of the phone's owner. As I had suspected, they lived in the neighborhood on the street where I found the phone and the glasses. The man had placed them on the roof of his truck and then forgot them as he drove out the driveway. When he turned right onto the street, the phone and the glasses fell off the roof and onto the road. Fortunately for him, the glasses flew out of the case when it hit the road. Apparently a passing car had hit the glasses case and smashed it while sparing both the glasses and the I-Phone.
Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. My husband and I know because something similar happened to us in early November when my husband lost his phone. The family who found it contacted us in a similar manner to how we found the I-Phone's owner. In both cases, it was better to be lucky than good.
How is your luck today? And what is on your mind?