Photo by InstaWalli on Unsplash

Lately, I’ve begun to wonder if I broke a mirror, walked under a ladder, my stars are out of alignment or I’ve tangled with a black cat inadvertently. I’ve never been superstitious. I’ve always been believed that a person makes their own luck and has an element of control over their own misfortune. Here lately, however, I seem to have run into a streak of incredible incidents that shakes my belief system and makes me wonder if I need to knock on wood after all. This is all absolutely true, folks, I couldn’t make something like this up.

Bad things happen in threes – at least that is what I’ve always heard from those more superstitious than me. So, where do I begin? I suppose the first thing was the day the car was vandalized. We decided to attend an event at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, get out of the house, hear some music. Good idea – except while were there, the car, parked on a nearby metro parking lot, had a window smashed. Nothing taken, probably the burglar alarm scared the culprit away, but there was still the smashed window and the associated aggravation of getting it repaired. Well, crime happens. Deal with it. Life in the city goes on.

What next? Well, you remember the earthquake, the one in Seattle? I’m in Tennessee, so it doesn’t affect me. Right? Wrong! It so happens my daughter travels in relation to her job. Of all the cities in the United States, where she might have been working, where was she when the earthquake happened? Yep, Seattle. No serious injuries, just minor stuff and shaken up like everyone else. But what a frightening thing – and what a coincidence.

Then the furnace caught on fire – well, almost. Actually, it was relatively minor when all was said and done. I won’t go into all the details again. I’d rather not think about it. The house was full of smoke, and I had to make an emergency call to the furnace company. Could have been much worse – MUCH worse.

That’s three, isn’t it? So why is it that same week I received a call from my sister in St. Louis to tell me my mother was in the hospital? Another source of stress. I tell ya, what else, can happen? But things can always be worse. As long as nobody is dead, and nothing is broken that can’t be fixed, just count your blessings. Right? Maybe it just seems as if everything is going wrong at once. Maybe I do have some control over life. Maybe its just coincidence.

So, I need to get my mind off my troubles and quit worrying about bad luck. I made it to work just fine, no traffic accident or anything. No point in being paranoid! At least that is what I was trying to think while I was waiting to be rescued from the office elevator, which was STUCK on the fifth floor. It had to be pried open with a crowbar and I had to climb out, folks.

Anybody got a rabbit’s foot, a four-leaf clover, a horseshoe, a piece of jade, a lucky penny? Send it all. I’ll take anything at this point. Is that a black cloud following me around, or what?

Copyright 2001 Sheila Moss