The Winningest Person

Last night I started to tell friends about the writing retreat and my friend Steve said, “How can you be surprised, you are the winningest person we know! Anytime something like this comes up, you get it. You are, seriously, the winningest person.”

Two nights ago when I was at Moody’s with some other friends, one girlfriend said to another, “She has a charmed life, doesn’t she?”

Wow. While I rarely feel like the Winningest Person (where’s my lottery ticket?) or like my life is charmed, when I stop for a minute and look back… yes, it is charmed. I appreciate my friends pointing it out. From my point of view, it is just how my life has gone. London on the drop of a dime, a career that grew from blogging, two highly subsidized trips to Israel, a grant to go write for a week, and a mortgage when I barely made any money. Yes, it has been charmed.

I need to remember that more often. It is a luxury to have existential angst, because it means that needs are taken care of and I’m not worrying about my next meal or shelter. That is winningest, too.

(The photo is after riding my bike 9.5 miles to get to Shedd Aquarium and that was less than half of the 23 mile bike ride I went on yesterday. Whew. Edgewater to Hyde Park and back to Roosevelt before collapsing onto a train.)