Maybe

Life is full of unpredictable twists and turns.  You can never be sure what will happen, and that’s exactly what also makes it exciting. That you’re never bored. But you should always be prepared. Mentally, more than anything. To embrace the notion that whatever comes your way, be it good luck or bad luck, will be dealt with for what it is, and time will tell how it will develop. Even a misfortune can turn out for the best if you’re open enough to view it that way. Lamenting about it certainly won’t help.   

To illustrate, here’s a Chinese fable:

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbours came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening, everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbours then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbours came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

Like Alan Watts said, “The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.”

Bad and good experiences are all part of life; we need one to appreciate the other. And whatever happens, we’ll never know the consequences it may bring in the future. We just need to trust the process and believe that things will turn out as they should.

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Luck and what we make of it

It was a seemingly ordinary day. Whatever ‘ordinary’ may be defined as. Because, although he had everything perfectly planned to the minute the night before, the next morning everything capsized. It took him seven snoozed alarms to finally crawl out of bed. There was no milk in the fridge for his breakfast, and when he reached the bus stop, he had to wait half an hour in the scorching heat, as there was an error in the schedule.

When he eventually reached his appointment location about an hour later, the person he was supposed to meet was herself running late due to an unprecedented occurrence (health-related). He could only wait. For another half hour. In the developing heatwave.

The day only slightly improved after the meeting (set to last for 15 minutes but turned into a 2-hour visit) ended and he rushed to see his girl. Lunch together appeared to alleviate things.

They even bought a lucky bamboo together, in the hope that their fortune would change hereafter.

There was a spare penny after the payment, which he decided to pass on.

During the evening, he rushed to the supermarket before heading home for some urgent work. The cash in his wallet was one penny short of the bill he had to pay.

The penny from the bamboo.

His eye twitched as he counted the coins.

Luck, they say, is something you make. But is it so? Is it the choices we make or the circumstances that occur? And how much do we impact everything around us in the end?

He sulked home, hoping the lucky bamboo would do a better job as of tomorrow.

The longest distance

Distance is a strange concept. Because technological evolution has made it possible to feel close to people who are oceans apart from us. Yet, sometimes, the distance that separates our minds with people who are right next to us is often unsurmountable.

Distance is often a way to see things differently. To view situations in another light or from another perspective. It shows us things we don’t want to see, we ignore, or we fear of acknowledging. But it also gives us a clearer view. People think they are the centre of the universe, yet from space we are just a dot in a vast solar system; we are too small and insignificant in this infinity.

In the end, it is not the kilometres that divide us, but the emotional distance, that which makes the feeling of loneliness all the more intense. It is said that distance is only a test to see how far love can travel. It is what enhances patience and expectation, sometimes even reinforcing the very feeling of love.

According to Tennessee Williams, “time is the longest distance between two places.” Physical distance can easily be overcome. But time needs courage.

We usually blame the distance for things we don’t want to do or for situations in which we need to justify our behaviour. We curse our fate for the difference caused in our lives by distances of all sorts. Yet, as Democritus said, “people invented lady luck to justify their own lack of will”. It is not distance that separates people. It is the lack of will and the silence. Because in our modern, evolving world, where there is a will, there is a way.

And ultimately, even distance is just a number.

An uncanny excuse

Maximilian knew from the morning he sprang out of bed that it was going to be a difficult day. His alarm had not sounded and he had not been alerted that he had to get up or he was going to be late for work. His heart was pounding as he hastily tried to dress, shave and have breakfast all at the same time. By the time he got out of the door, he knew there was no way of reaching work on time.

His car had broken down the day before and the buses were on strike. A taxi was the only means available. But he was not alone in needing one urgently. He saw four pass by him before one finally stopped to take him in. Traffic was horrendous. But there was nothing he could do. His work was at least a 20-minute drive away and it was impossible to make it any sooner on foot.

Maximilian’s phone began to ring, just when he had sunk into the taxi seat, surrendering to his misfortune. One of his colleagues just alerted him that a meeting scheduled for noon had been moved up. It would happen in the next 30 minutes. Maximilian’s heart began to pound again. He could feel the blood draining from his veins and could feel a collapse was imminent. Then the messages and emails began to sound all at once. Work was already piling up and he was nowhere near the office.

“There has to be something I can do”, he thought. “Some sort of loophole. Something that can get me out of this mess. If only something could happen to reverse it all, to somehow postpone everything until I arrived…” As he racked his brain to find a solution, he remembered a conversation with a computer-programmer friend of his. He had insisted that he could hack into a building’s system from anywhere and get access to anything from switching on and off the lights to even the company’s internal servers. Maximilian knew this was wrong but he had no choice. To him this was the answer. “Simon I’ll buy you a beer tonight if you can prove your argument right”, he found himself saying next.

Maximilian finally arrived at the office just before the meeting was about to start. But he found everyone in distress. He discretely asked what happen and one of his colleagues began a rant on how a black out had occurred for almost twenty minutes and panic had ensued out of fear all the data would be lost. Fortunately, now that power was restored, everything was back to normal, and it was good that he was there to start the meeting.

“Great,” Maximilian responded. “Sorry I arrived late; the traffic out there is unforgiveable”.

Maybe it was just an excuse and Maximilian got lucky, but sometimes all we need to do is search for that loophole we don’t initially see at first to make things easier for us. Not everything has to be so despairingly difficult for us all the time.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Loophole

The magic candelabra

©Janet Webb

It was a present from her aunt who always had an aura of mystery surrounding her. She used to dress in sparkles, long, airy dresses and dangling earrings. When she was young, Janet believed her aunt was a descendant of a gypsy witch. But a bit more elegant.

The candelabra decorated her windowsill ever since she moved into her own house. And she believed that it brought with it some of her aunt’s magic. It was in there that she found love and got married, got a promotion, and even won the lottery. It couldn’t have been a simple coincidence.

 

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

The lucky penny

It fell out of her purse when she haphazardly pulled out some money to pay for the tomatoes she had chosen at the market. She didn’t notice it of course. It was too small. Too negligible. But sometimes it is those seemingly inconspicuous things that make the largest difference, and it is thanks to those that you often gain a passport into another world.

A cat basking in the sunshine under the fisheries stall noticed its gleam as it reflected the sun’s rays. It rushed over to play with it, but as it pushed it forward with its paw, another woman walking hurriedly by kicked it out of its sight.

The penny rolled further down onto the street where a little boy bent down to pick it up, letting go of his mother’s hand. She squealed in fright as soon as she felt his hand slip away and rushed to regain control. The boy stretched his little arm to show her the penny, but a bike messenger swished by and tossed it out of his palm.

The penny fell into an old woman’s shopping trolley as she placed a bag of onions on top of it. When she went home the penny was retrieved together with the groceries and unknowingly remained on the kitchen table. It caught the eye of the old woman’s son who had walked into the kitchen to ask if she needed anything from outside. He placed it in his pocket, saying “you never know when it might come into use”.

It turns out he needed it to complete his purchase of his weekly pack of cigarettes.

The kiosk owner gave the penny as part of purchase to another man who had passed by a bit later on looking for “something small and sweet to chew on”.

But the penny fell out of his pocket later that day when he took out his keys to open the entrance door of his building.

The penny lay there on the front door mat, as if waiting for its next transport.

It was picked up by a young man who was arriving at his girlfriend’s house as she had promised him dinner that evening. She had even gone to the market that very day to purchase fresh groceries for the very occasion.

He gave it to her together with his greeting kiss, telling her that he found it outside and it would bring her luck.

She smiled, her eyes glistening at the romantic gesture. She placed the penny in a decorative bowl she had in her living room to ensure she wouldn’t spend it.

But you never know…

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Passport

Lucky disorientation

© Jan Marler Morrill

There is a reason she was told not to go out alone, even during daylight. She had no sense of orientation whatsoever, setting out for the beach and somehow reaching the mountains.

On that idyllic island, she realised what her horoscope had described as “luck or fate”.

On that white and blue deserted back alley is where she found him. Standing like a Greek statue under the scorching sun. As if he was waiting there for her to arrive. His eyes shimmering in the sun. She smiled, accentuating her dimples, and she could see him blush.

Her name was Aphrodite.

 

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

The curse of a leap year

There is this question that will often set your mind in motion: “what would you do if you had an extra day to live?”

Every four years, we get that extra day. An additional 24 hours to do pretty much anything we want to do.

So, how do you spend it?

Do you stay in bed a little longer? Do you try to get more work done? Do you enjoy more time with friends? Do you exercise? Do you laugh more?

Do you experience what that extra day is there for? To realise how lucky you are to have survived so far and to be strong and healthy enough to continue even further? To be able to surround yourself with people you love, doing what you enjoy, and relishing every single moment?

Some say a leap year with that strange extra day is a curse because it is so rare. But, like everything in life, it’s all a matter of perspective.

And however you spend your day(s) is also a matter of choice.

Just remember that whatever you choose to do, do it with all your heart.

Wishing Well

The young boy looked into the well. The old man had told him it would only grant him one wish, so he should choose wisely.

Before uttering what he most wanted, the young boy had roamed the village and asked its residents what they would wish for.

There were those who said they would ask for more time.

But the young boy thought that those who wished for this were those who mismanaged the time already given to them.

There were those who would wish for more money.

But money, he thought, was a commodity of which more could always be earned.

There were others who would call for luck.

But that is something the boy thought could not be controlled – falling upon the right people, the right circumstances, the right opportunities. You just had to keep your eyes and mind open to recognising them.

Everyone asked for more of something.

The boy believed that you can work hard to achieve more. But all that requires one thing that is essential and irreplaceable – good health.

So if there were only one thing for which he could wish for, he would wish for that: for being healthy, to be able to realise your dreams, to show the necessary courage to go further, and to fulfil everything your heart desires.

A worthy meal

He spent his last £30 on a plate of oysters and a glass of champagne.

He didn’t mind that he would now be broke. It was worth it. The oysters were exquisite and the champagne was bubbly and fruity. Not that he had anything to compare them to.

He had just arrived in the country he now called home. He was one of the thousands who believed fleeing from the only home you know was the single chance you had for a tomorrow. The future was all he would think about when he stepped his trembling body into that rocking boat. He didn’t know where he was heading to, but looking back at the fire burning his village, he knew forward was the only way he could go.

Life is full of surprises, they say. For when he reached the shore, the informal “welcome committee” consisted of one of his cousins who had arrived a couple of years ago. Following a reunion that alternated between tears and jumping jacks of joy, he soon found a new home, even if just a temporary one.

However, finding work was not easy. There were so many unskilled workers asking for jobs, the competition was so great, that it all came down to who would accept less.

His first job interview failed because he couldn’t understand what the employer was saying.

His second because he couldn’t respond fast enough.

His third because he did not give adequate replies.

His fourth because his reply to the question “where do you see yourself in five years” was “alive”.

His fifth because he was too old for the job.

His sixth because he had no experience for it.

His seventh because they had already hired the person before him.

He needed money somehow. He needed food. His stomach was already grumbling and he could not continue to live off his cousin forever. It was not proper. All he had left was £30, which he insisted that he would soon pay back no matter how much his cousin refused. His meals had consisted of bread, cheese and apples, as little as he could eat a day in order to save the cash. But he was now drained. He needed a proper meal.

Autumn had settled in and the brown crispy leaves crackled under his feet as he tottered pensively along the central avenue. The rain began to fall, slowly at first, caressing his stress-sweated face, and then rapidly like a torrent attempting to cleanse out the pain of his soul all at once. He stood still in the street, as people all around him rushed for shelter. He had lived through worse. A little rain would do no harm. On the contrary, it was welcome. The avenues began to fill with water like empty tanks fill up. The hundreds of fallen leaves had blocked the gutters, tapping all the water into the streets. There was no outlet for the water that was now raging from the dark sky.

He looked around and saw cars struggling to move ahead, pedestrians getting soaked. And there was so much noise – the honking, the screaming, the thunders, the rain…

He looked down at his feet, which were by now in a puddle of rainwater mixed with black-trampled-on-leaves. Right in front of him was a blocked gutter. If he could just remove the dirt, he would manage to alleviate some of the gushing water and perhaps restore calm. He took a fallen branch from a nearby tree and began to clear out the gutter. He then proceeded to the next one further down, and the next one. By the time he reached the top of the avenue where all the fancy and elitist restaurants where, the rain had diminished to a drizzle. Exhausted as he was, he stopped to check the result of his feat. The roads had mostly cleared from the rain, everyone seemed less annoyed, and it was quieter now.

The smell of wet leaves reminded him of how hungry he was. He stepped into the restaurant in front of him and ordered a royal lunch. He didn’t care people looked at him disapprovingly. In his one month there, he had done more for them than they had even thought of doing for him. It was time to live in the moment. When he saw a municipal worker approaching him with an applauding smile on his face, that was when he thought that just maybe, that moment would give something back.

The story was an entry in the Guardian Masterclasses blog competition.