I ran my hand through the soft grass, searching for a four-leaf clover. The ground was covered in three-leaf clovers, so I knew there had to be a four-leaf clover somewhere in that field of green. Meticulously examining the ground for something so delicate, so specific is not for the impatient. 

Why have I never found a four-leaf clover? I wondered, eyes peeled to the green ground, becoming more irritated by the second. I thought of at least two other people I know that are able to find four-leaf clovers without even looking for them. 

I guess they are luckier than me. 

I rubbed my hand through the three-leaf clovers, thinking about moving to a new spot in the yard, but feeling too comfortable spread out across my yoga mat, basking in the afternoon sun.

I looked at the flowers around me, admiring the purples and blues melting against each other. It really was a lovely day. If only I could find that four-leaf clover everything would be complete. I kept looking with no such luck.

I envisioned myself finding a four-leaf clover and what I would feel. Finally, I would have luck! 

But what would that even mean? What would luck provide for me? Would I feel that much different after I found it? Or would I just shut my ego up? 

Maybe I was skimming over one and not realizing it. I do tend to glance over things sometimes. 

Perhaps I should just create my own luck, my own sense of magic so I could stop straining my eyes into the sea of green.

I decided I was looking too hard and putting too much pressure on myself to find that needle in the haystack. I was trying to force luck to come to me and unfortunately that isn’t how luck operates. 

I decided, while brushing my hand through a chunk of three-leaf clovers, that the luck of a four-leaf clover wasn’t nearly as magical as the abundance of the three leaf clovers.

I kept thinking about the phrase, “gratitude cultivates abundance.” And I do feel grateful, every day. Each morning I feel grateful for the sunshine streaming into my bedroom, the sweet soft yawns of my cat, and the opportunities that each day brings me.

Maybe I don’t need the luck that supposedly comes from a four-leaf clover after all. Maybe all I need is a strong work ethic and to accept my fate exactly as it, to admire the ordinariness of the three-leaf clovers, and to appreciate the beauty and abundance they offer.

Maybe that’s all I ever really need to do, to appreciate what’s there and accept it for exactly how it is.