My father has said before that he has the “best worst luck.” And I feel the same way about myself. It’s kind of another way of thinking that a situation could always be worse. There are plenty of times in my own life when I felt like this was especially true.
Recently, we had a calf run away from the farm. My sister and I were herding him and his mother into the barn. The calf was maybe a day old, and it is standard on our farm to bring in cows who have recently given birth (aka a fresh cow), so that they can join the milk herd.
We basically had both the cow and the calf in the barn lot when the calf took off running. Neither I or my sister have any idea why he decided to bolt, but he began sprinting through the field in the opposite direction of his mother and the barn. Because he was short, he easily slipped beneath the electric fences, completely unaware that he was leaving the farm. By the time I got his mother situated, it made more sense to drive around the farm with my father to the other side of the field to try and catch the calf and meet up with my sister who had been following him. Even then, he was so far ahead of us that we could not find him at the edge of our field – he had become lost in the woods and backyards of the houses that bordered our farm.
With other work needing to be done, my father went back to the farm and my sister headed home. But, because I’m stubborn, I began driving up and down the street searching for any sign of the calf.
There was no reason the calf ran away besides the fact that he decided he did not want to follow his mother into the barn. I was brainstorming places to look for the calf while driving when I came upon a truck pulled over on the side of the road with its lights flashing and the driver standing in the road making a phone call. Instantly I knew he must have found the lost calf. Although, this calf probably weighed close to 115 pounds. Working with the man who had found the calf, we were able to catch him and bring him back to the barn. So, although it was bad luck the calf had runaway, I was lucky in the fact that someone had found the calf and they were able to help me bring him back almost immediately after I had started searching for him by myself.
Having had several experiences like this in my life, I can’t help but think how lucky I am even when things go wrong. Even if events don’t go as I have planned, it always works out, whether it is because I think of another solution or because I meet someone whose willing to lend a helping hand.
Chasing serendipity 