Tradition and Luck

I can’t pick one, so I thought I’d write about two topics on my mind this month – tradition and luck:

1. Tradition – One of my favorite traditions is back after a hiatus when my Texas Aggies play the Longhorns in college football this Saturday. I like traditions when they connect us to the wisdom and people of the past but not when they hold us back from what might be better. For example, I make my Aunt Lynnette’s sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving every year now. She originally used canned sweet potatoes and, one year when she was still with us, I decided to try her recipe with fresh ones. Of course, I took the original and new versions to our Thanksgiving lunch so I would not get kicked out of the family. However, to my delight and surprise, everyone including Aunt Lynnette liked my new one! Even better, my new version also uses one less stick of butter. Sometimes, we can carry traditions forward and still improve upon them. Do you have examples like this? I’d love to hear! Need the recipe? Let me know.
2. Luck – This month has been a whirlwind with some bad news and tough surprises along with some really good news for family and friends. It got me thinking about luck. “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” is my favorite definition. I first heard this from Oprah but it looks like it is most attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca. One way that luck has shown up for me is that I almost always have a plan, and it hardly ever works out. Mostly, life has worked out better than I imagined and moving towards my plan has put me in a place to get lucky even though it was hard to see at first. In my best example, in 1997, my original plan was to move to London to work for a software company. The day before my flight was scheduled to take me across the ocean to live in another country on my own, I received a call that the company no longer had a job for me. That threw me for a loop, and I thought hard about whether I was meant to go to London or do something totally different. I pursued several options, and, luckily, I secured another role and headed to London just a couple of months later than planned. It turned into a great professional experience that later took me to live in Miami Beach and travel to Mexico and all over South America. Even better, through a friend at the new company in London, I met my husband of now over 25 years. I was very lucky that time! What is your definition of luck and what role has it played in your life? Share with me!

What are your thoughts on tradition and luck? Here’s hoping we all have more good luck in 2024!