I’m not particularly lucky. When I insert coins in a slot machine, the bells don’t ring and money doesn’t come out. When I play lotto (definitely not regularly), my numbers do not come up. When I find a scratcher in my Christmas stocking, there’s no prize that appears to cash in. My name doesn’t get pulled for raffle prizes and I can’t even imagine how badly I would fare on a TV reality game like Deal of No Deal Island!
In life, I count my lucky stars (where did I pull that phrase from?). My family is mostly healthy–as am I. I am in a happy long-term relationship. My children are independent and making their way in the world. I love my work and my life.
2025 has been a sea star year for me. I count myself lucky every time I see one. I started the year by coming across a beautiful specimen in the tide pool on New Year’s Day–and wrote about how lucky that felt–a hopeful talisman for the year! Rather than choosing one little word to guide the year, sea stars are giving me direction, hope, and energy. I’ve had a number of other sea star sightings this year. Each one brings that same surge of euphoria and feeling of luck.
As I walked the beach this afternoon (a perfect way to end the work week), my husband and I were commenting that we hadn’t seen any tide pool critters lately. We aren’t the people who wade in and turn over rocks, stirring up the tide pool in search of aquatic life. We look, as patiently as possible, to see creatures in their undisturbed place.
And then, a bright pop of orange caught my eye! It was a sea star. Just a small one, about the size of a quarter. Just when I moved in closer to take a photo, the water surged, covering my shoes and soaking my socks. Oh well, I thought. I still felt so lucky to start the weekend with the dopamine spike of seeing and enjoying the sea star in its natural habitat!
Today I am counting my lucky sea stars!
What makes you feel lucky? Or are you one of those naturally lucky people?
I woke up on this first day of 2025 to a blog post written by my friend Molly. She talked about the ways she invokes luck and good fortune at the beginning of a new month–and a new year. She woke this morning saying, “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” a sure sign of good things to come (and heard her husband muttering it even before she was fully conscious). And then she talked about paying attention to the first bird, and essentially “reading” it to determine what qualities it might portend for the new year.
I didn’t wake up with the word rabbit on my mind, and the idea of birds flew out of my brain well before rising from my cozy bed this morning. Our plans for the day were to meet family at the beach around noon–when things began to warm up a bit. Only it really didn’t. Our short drive from home to the beach took us from the sunshine into a thick coating of coastal overcast–and it was downright cold! (At least by SoCal standards)
After a couple of vigorous games of beach paddleball, 8 year olds chasing waves in puffer jackets, swim trunks, and bare feet (typical winter beach attire), a tidepool mishap that resulted in a painful scrape and tears…and an early exit from the beach, we were left to our own devices. So we headed out to lunch where we discussed our need to still fit a walk into our day. We had resigned ourselves to walking our neighborhood until Geoff suggested heading back to the beach–one a couple of miles north of where we were earlier–to do our walking.
The tide was heading toward low–and a good negative tide that would leave tidepools uncovered–my favorite condition for walking. The sun began to peek out as it headed down closer to the horizon. The best tidepools are about a mile from the parking lot where we parked (you can get there from a closer lot–but we needed the walk). Loads of people were out at the beach today–maybe for their own New Year’s traditions.
I walked out onto the reef, noticing the usual sea anemones and tiny crabs. My attention was drawn by a conversation overheard about an octopus, and I headed in that direction. I noticed a tween girl with a large seastar in her hand–and also noticed several other smaller seastars in the pool where she was standing. I frequently look for seastars in the tidepools and seldom find any, so this felt special. The young girl was quite enthusiastic and encouraged me to take a photo of the seastar in her hand. Of course I obliged and took a number of photos of those gorgeous orange echinoderms.
As I observed the seastars and took my photos, I couldn’t help thinking about the good fortune of seeing this elusive creature on the first day of the year. Google offers that seastars represent a striving for peace and harmony and the ability to accomplish great things when you set your mind to it. For me, seastars embody flexibility and the superpower that allows them to regenerate when faced with hardship–a certain kind of resilience. All of these seem like qualities our world needs right now.
And to add frosting to the cake, as I walked away from the seastars (the the young girl carefully settled them back into their tidepool habitat), I noticed a couple peering closely under the ledge nearby. He was shining a flashlight, pointing out where a small octopus was hunkered down. I moved closer and he shined the light again so I could see–and to be honest, I wasn’t seeing anything. So I asked, “What am I looking for to see the octopus?” He then pointed out the eye and the way the octopus was wrapped around the ledge. Then I could see that expertly camouflaged creature–even if it wasn’t in a position to be photographed! Sometimes you just have to look with your eyes and snap that memory into your mind–and maybe blog about it to remember it again later!
I’m holding that seastar in my mind and heart as a symbol of good luck on this first day of 2025 and reminding myself of the power of wonder and curiosity…and playfulness. Let’s push back against darkness and strive for peace, empathy, and care as we continue to move through this new year.
Thinking Through My Lens 