Luck vs. Destiny

This past Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day, and as I sat down to a table laden with an abundance of delicious food, circled by friends and loved ones, we struck up a conversation about what luck means to us.

“Can you remember a time when you felt incredibly lucky?” I posed to the group. This question gave way to several amusing anecdotes about unexpectedly finding money, avoiding car crashes, and other instances of seemingly cosmic intervention. One of my friends wisely pointed out that we could feel lucky about every aspect of our lives - even being born onto this Earth at all is a lucky experience.

As we shared our stories and chewed on our corned beef, I noticed a common thread in our stories of luck. It seems we invoke this word when something unexpected and positive happens. It requires both a sense of surprise and benevolence.

I wonder then, how destiny and luck mix together.

If luck blossoms outside of our expectations, does it also manifest outside of destiny? In other words, if one believes that it our lives were destined to be lived, can we still call it luck to be alive?

From here, our conversation turned to our personal beliefs about the concept of “free will,” and whether destiny even exists at all.

From my perspective, I’m doubtful about free will. Although I can relate to the feeling that the choices I make come from within me, when I go looking for the place inside me where those decisions arise, there is no Self to be found. The illusion crumbles, and I catch a glimpse of something greater than myself at work deep inside; the soul, perhaps.

Ultimately, I don’t think we’ll ever definitively understand these cosmic mechanisms - not in this lifetime, anyway. So, I’ll continue saying a prayer of gratitude when lucky moments arise, and accepting that which is beyond my control.

Pray for sun; carry an umbrella.