![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nosmallthing.net\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/penny-225x300.jpg\")
It must have rained during the night.<\/p>\nIt must have rained during the night.<\/p>\n
Not a deluge, but the sidewalk still had wet spots at 7:30 when I took my morning walk.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t think I\u2019d notice the subtle glimmer of a penny against the wet surface of the sidewalk, let alone while I was walking, often looking at traffic or staring into the windows of small businesses along Lawrence Avenue, but I did.<\/p>\n
My mind, which was pretty much into the blur of objects as I passed them, started fixating on this small, round shiny object. The question of whether I should just be satisfied noticing it or whether I wanted to interact with it occupied my thoughts?<\/p>\n
Should I pick it up?<\/em> I wondered.<\/p>\n Of course, I couldn\u2019t\u00a0 help but think about associating found pennies with luck.<\/strong> There are many traditions and superstitions around this.<\/p>\n According to one theory, finding pennies was looked at as good luck because metals were precious and often considered to be. a gift of protection from the gods.<\/p>\n Some believe that you should only pick up a penny if you find it in a heads up position. This view continues with a suggestion. If you find a copper coin tails up, you should turn it over for someone else to find and pass on the good luck to them.<\/p>\n Many make no distinction between the two sides of a coin, to one side being a sign of good things to come and the other a sign of impending disappointments. Any amount of found money represents wealth you didn\u2019t have the day before and should be received gratefully.<\/p>\n \u201cFind a penny. Pick it up.\u00a0 All day long, you\u2019ll have good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n The saying repeated in my head.<\/p>\n I decided to pick up the shiny red disk. When I got home, I mixed it in with other coins I kept in a cut glass dish on my\u00a0 bedroom dresser. Not necessarily because it made me feel wealthy, I liked the notion of noticing things that might easily be overlooked.<\/p>\n To me, the penny represented paying attention and being open to changing direction based on what life presented.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t help but think about how small events or gestures, especially when they seem to come at the perfect time, can affect my mood and outlook.<\/p>\n Finding money when I\u2019m feeling lack, any amount, can boost my sense of optimism about my finances. Receiving a compliment when I’m feeling \u201cinvisible\u201d reminds me that my best can be seen even when I\u2019m not celebrating an accomplishment.<\/p>\n In adding this penny to my dish of coins, I contemplated my attitude about gratitude. I had to ask myself what the difference was between \u201cluck\u201d and \u201cgood fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n It seems that feeling lucky is brought on by an external event like winning a lottery or getting chosen for a dream job. These kinds of things can\u2019t be predicted or controlled.<\/p>\n Good fortune is often defined as a run of lucky or advantageous outcomes, but I think there\u2019s more to it.<\/p>\n To me, good fortune is a state or condition. Although good fortune is not guaranteed never to change, it does not feel as arbitrary as luck, as short-lived as a single win.<\/p>\n I think of good fortune as harder to lose. Luck can easily run out. After all, luck usually comes as a discreet, unexpected event and could become absent as easily.<\/p>\n I ALWAYS know how to return to a grateful state when I practice seeing how what I value is already in my life.<\/p>\n I much prefer knowing how to access a state of gratitude than be the happy benefactor of a random event that works out well for me.<\/p>\n I am glad I can detect a penny on the sidewalk, and I applaud my ability to appreciates the experience.<\/p>\n Knowing the difference between luck and good fortune is no small thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It must have rained during the night. Not a deluge, but the sidewalk still had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[632],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-blog","grateful-dozen-noticing-small-things","grateful-dozen-winning-luck"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n