I don’t believe in luck, but I do feel lucky. I know it sounds stupid but I do – just not in the sense of winning the lottery or something like that but I do feel lucky in this current climate where it feels like the world is turning inside out, I have my health and someone that I care about and equally cares about me by my side. For the past 5 months of lockdown, shut away in our home just the two of us, I have come to really and I mean really appreciate how lucky I am for what I have.
I guess the reason I don’t believe in luck is that I can’t say that people who are currently suffering right now whether it be battling the systematic racism they are faced with everyday, or trying to cross an ocean for a better life or just trying to stay alive while a virus ravages the planet are unlucky because that would be gross, untruthful and disrespectful. People don’t choose to be persecuted or discriminated against because the colour of their skin, who they choose to love or where they want to live. To say that they are unlucky just reduces their struggle into something trivial.
While I don’t know how we can get to the much needed conclusion that most of us seem to be fighting for, I do know that we won’t get there any time soon with the inept people currently in charge of leading us. As they try to force us to go back to normal it can be hard to see any hope on the horizon when clearly things can’t nor should they be returning to the way it was if we want to actually address and fix the problems.
But as I stand here with my partner watching a summer sun setting on an isolated field melting into the long grass, soaking the clouds with glistening orange tones as the last few rays hit our skin, for a split second the glow hits my eyes and it feels for the first time in a long time like hope, relief, reassurance and comfort are in my view all because of who I have by my side. And it’s these little moments as fleeting as they are that I choose to hold on to forever until we all feel some kind of peace. And isn’t that what we all want in life?
