I've been waiting for some luck to hit me. Perhaps luck will come my way if I win big from a 649 Quick Pick lottery ticket or I'll just randomly come across a free bag of money or jewels that has fallen off a pirate ship. Yes, I am waiting to be offered that perfect job or find the perfect apartment and I know that luck plays a big part in the acquisition of both of these things. Sure, skills and hard work are important but luck also has a role in the good things that happen to you.
But luck, what does it really mean? A bag of horseshoes and fairy tales, good things occurring randomly, by chance, a twist of karmic fate that is in your favour, the stars aligning perfectly just for you, for one moment, and everything will be great? Aren't you lucky! Good luck can happen when for one moment in a specific point in the trajectory of time and whatever you want or need falls into your lap. Poof!!!!
Yes, I've been waiting for good luck to happen to me, but recently it has not been coming my way, not at all. How does one turn this around? I know that positivity is important and you can bring good fortune upon yourself by thinking positively and believing good things will happen. After all that is The Secret. If you send good vibes out, good vibes will come back. But there is still no guarantee, it would be so much easier if there was some sort of science to it, a formula to follow.
I have spent a substantial chunk of my life in the land of auspiciousness. I had no idea what the word "auspicious" meant until I moved to China. Well it means conducive to success, and many people in China make a real effort to ensure that they make their lives and surroundings as conducive as possible. When you are on the mainland, the colour red is everywhere, people wear it and decorate everything with it because of its apparent auspicious properties and because of the fortune it will bring the wearer or decorator.
Open air holes are sometimes placed in the centres of large sky skyscrapers; this is to let the dragons pass through the building and bring good luck to the residence. This is a major architectural statement and could be considered a waste of prime real-estate in cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai, where property values are at a premium. However, if that dragon passing through the building brings all those inside good luck, one can argue that the property value has been increased.
China may be a country without organized religion but they sure do have superstitions. And I must say that it does feel like something is working here. Coming from the United States where the decline in the economy is very apparent, I notice it's different in China where money is fluid and shops are full.
I feel like I should go put on some red.
Naomi Yorke is a Port Coquitlam student who has lived in Shanghai, China, recently attended art school in Chicago, and is now travelling for the summer.
