Do you believe in luck?

[pairsinparis]

I'm having so much bad luck at the moment. It's been constant for a few weeks and Im at the end of my tether

Yes... and no.

Yes, there are times when things just work out and there's no reason why. When I broke down it happened that someone I knew vaguely was passing, saw me and recognised me and stopped to say hello. They were not only able to identify what was wrong but had the knowledge and tools with them to mend it enough to limp to the garage. I didn't know they knew about cars, they didn't normally have the tools in the car with them, can't even remember why they happened to that time.
That was simply luck.

But then sometimes we make our own luck.
I've told this story before, but I'm not sure if I've told it here:
I was taking ds when he was small to an event. We'd been many times before, but for an unknown reason it was massively popular on that day. We hit the queue for the event about 5 miles away-never had to queue to get in before.

So we're going about 2 miles an hour and I saw a cyclist stopping for a drink on the other side of the road. So I called across and asked if there were roadworks ahead. He tells me the queue goes all the way to the event, but he goes on and tells me that if I take the next right I'll skip most of the queue.
So I thought, nothing to lose, and took it. Looks pretty unlikely, single track farm road, but he was right, brought me out about 1/2 mile from the event.

So we get in and park. Hadn't bought tickets in advance and I look at the queues (3 or 4 of them) stretching as far as the eye could see.
So I said to ds that we're not going to get in, as they will be full well before we get to the front and suggested we sit by the fence, have our picnic and listen to the loudspeaker while we eat and go home.
He agreed.

We're just getting our picnic out and this chap comes up to me and asks if I'm paying by card to get in. I say I am and he tells me to follow him. So I do. As we go along with about half a dozen others I find out they were at the front of one of the queues when the card machine stopped working so he's taking them to the front of another queue to pay there.

We get to the other queue and are led to the front. The people in the queue there started shouting that we were pushing in and started getting aggressive.
So the chap with us just took us to the entrance gate and told us to go through.

As we went through they announced the event was closed to anyone else as it was full.

When I told my family approximately:

1. Dad said he would have turned back when he hit the first queue as we clearly wouldn't get in.
2. Mum said I shouldn't have taken an unknown single track lane.
3. Sister said that it was silly not to join the queue when we got there because she wouldn't have gone all that way and not tried to get in.
4. Brother said he wouldn't have followed the man "in case" it was a scam to get credit card details.

Then they all chorused "You're always sooooo lucky. It's not fair!"

My point is that their pov is that they saw it as entirely me being lucky (again) I maintain that I made choices that were helped by luck, but if I'd made the choices they would have made it wouldn't have worked out. So I helped the luck.

@MargaretThursday

Yes... and no.

Yes, there are times when things just work out and there's no reason why. When I broke down it happened that someone I knew vaguely was passing, saw me and recognised me and stopped to say hello. They were not only able to identify what was wrong but had the knowledge and tools with them to mend it enough to limp to the garage. I didn't know they knew about cars, they didn't normally have the tools in the car with them, can't even remember why they happened to that time.
That was simply luck.

But then sometimes we make our own luck.
I've told this story before, but I'm not sure if I've told it here:
I was taking ds when he was small to an event. We'd been many times before, but for an unknown reason it was massively popular on that day. We hit the queue for the event about 5 miles away-never had to queue to get in before.

So we're going about 2 miles an hour and I saw a cyclist stopping for a drink on the other side of the road. So I called across and asked if there were roadworks ahead. He tells me the queue goes all the way to the event, but he goes on and tells me that if I take the next right I'll skip most of the queue.
So I thought, nothing to lose, and took it. Looks pretty unlikely, single track farm road, but he was right, brought me out about 1/2 mile from the event.

So we get in and park. Hadn't bought tickets in advance and I look at the queues (3 or 4 of them) stretching as far as the eye could see.
So I said to ds that we're not going to get in, as they will be full well before we get to the front and suggested we sit by the fence, have our picnic and listen to the loudspeaker while we eat and go home.
He agreed.

We're just getting our picnic out and this chap comes up to me and asks if I'm paying by card to get in. I say I am and he tells me to follow him. So I do. As we go along with about half a dozen others I find out they were at the front of one of the queues when the card machine stopped working so he's taking them to the front of another queue to pay there.

We get to the other queue and are led to the front. The people in the queue there started shouting that we were pushing in and started getting aggressive.
So the chap with us just took us to the entrance gate and told us to go through.

As we went through they announced the event was closed to anyone else as it was full.

When I told my family approximately:

1. Dad said he would have turned back when he hit the first queue as we clearly wouldn't get in.
2. Mum said I shouldn't have taken an unknown single track lane.
3. Sister said that it was silly not to join the queue when we got there because she wouldn't have gone all that way and not tried to get in.
4. Brother said he wouldn't have followed the man "in case" it was a scam to get credit card details.

Then they all chorused "You're always sooooo lucky. It's not fair!"

My point is that their pov is that they saw it as entirely me being lucky (again) I maintain that I made choices that were helped by luck, but if I'd made the choices they would have made it wouldn't have worked out. So I helped the luck.

maybe you had an innocent face and people wanted to help you .

@bluebell34567

I think I probably look helpless because I've never had to ask for help when getting buggies up and down stairs etc - even on the tube there's ways been someone who helps me.

Sort of. Although I can’t really explain what it is.
Up to this point in my life I’d say I’d been pretty ‘lucky’. Good family, good health, reasonably intelligent etc. Have a good job in a place I like. A lovely husband who appears to love and respect me, healthy happy kids…. I have no idea why this is the case but I’m deeply grateful!
On the other hand I have acquaintances who always seem to have everything go wrong for them. Illness, job loss, bereavement, getting burgled, car getting totalled etc etc etc…
Why is this the case. They’re good people. Logic might say that they are doing something to cause it to all go wrong all the time but it does just seem to be ‘bad luck’. Sometimes one poor decision can lead to loads of other issues but it often all seems so random.

I suppose so, in a way. I think you get some luck and you make some luck.

So I was born into a chaotic family and had a difficult childhood - bad luck that just happened. Then I got a job and went back to school and worked hard to improve things - good luck that I made. I think in life you need a bit of both.

I never consider things as bad luck, if something unfortunate happens I see it as the universe telling me that a situation wasn't right